Republican Matt Van Epps defeats Democrat Aftyn Behn 54%-45% in Tennessee's 7th District special election

Matt Van Epps won 🎸Tennessee's 7th Congressional District special election on Dec. 2, 2025, beating ABAftyn Behn by 8.9 points. He's 42 years old, from Mentor, 🌰Ohio, and a West Point graduate who flew helicopter missions in nine tours across Afghanistan and Iraq. He served as Tennessee's Commissioner of General Services from 2024 to 2025 and lives in Nashville with his wife Meg Wrather, an editor he married in Jun. 2023, and their young daughter. Behn is 35 years old, from Knoxville, with a psychology degree and master's in social work from the University of 🤠Texas at Austin. She's been a Tennessee state representative since 2023, representing part of Nashville's 51st District. She worked as a healthcare organizer for the Tennessee Justice Center from 2017 before entering politics.

The 7th District spans 14 🎸Tennessee counties and includes downtown Nashville, Belmont University, Vanderbilt University, and most of the city's majority-Black precincts. Surrounding counties like Cheatham, Dickson, Robertson, and Williamson are affluent, white suburbs and exurbs. Franklin is a wealthy Republican stronghold. Montgomery County, anchored by Clarksville (Tennessee's fifth-largest city), is politically mixed and slightly more competitive. Trump won the district by 22 points in Nov. 2024. Former Rep. MGMark Green won by a similar margin before resigning in Jul. 2025 to take a private-sector job.

Van Epps won with over 96,000 votes, about 54% of ballots cast. That's a much narrower margin than Trump's 60%-38% victory just 13 months earlier. Democrats overperformed their 2024 result by 12.6 points - the strongest Democratic showing in this district during the 21st century. Turnout rivaled the 2022 midterm election and exceeded half of 2024 turnout, making it the highest turnout in any 2025 special election. An Emerson College poll released a week before the election showed Van Epps ahead 48% to 46%, within the margin of error.

Trump endorsed Van Epps four days before the Oct. Republican primary, calling him a 'MAGA warrior' and 'combat-decorated Army helicopter pilot.' State Representative Lee Reeves withdrew and endorsed Van Epps after Trump's endorsement. Van Epps won the 11-candidate Republican primary with 51.56% of the vote. Trump called into a Monday rally for Van Epps the day before the election, telling supporters the 'whole world is watching 🎸Tennessee right now.' House Speaker Mike Johnson campaigned with Van Epps Monday morning, saying: 'The problem is, when you have a deep-red district, a lot of the people take for granted that the Republican or the conservative is going to win.'

Democrats brought heavy firepower to support Behn despite the district's Republican lean. Former Vice President Kamala Harris and DNC Chairman Ken Martin attended canvassing events in Nov.. Former Vice President Al Gore and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez headlined a Zoom rally Monday evening before the election. The DCCC and allied groups spent millions on ads highlighting Van Epps' refusal to commit to releasing Jeffrey Epstein files and tying him to Speaker Johnson's blockage of Rep. Adelita Grijalva's bill demanding their release. Republican super PACs countered with over $600,000 in ads framing Behn as a 'radical disaster' with a 'Marxist' agenda.

Van Epps campaigned on affordability and alignment with Trump. He served 10 years on active duty as an Army helicopter pilot and Air Mission Commander in Army Special Operations, earning the Air Medal with 'V' device, Bronze Star, and Meritorious Service Medal. After leaving active duty, he worked for three years as 🎸Tennessee's Deputy Chief Operating Officer in Gov. Bill Lee's office before becoming Commissioner of the Department of General Services in 2024. He founded a veteran-owned firm focused on national security and conservative policy initiatives and developed the Governor's Veteran Fellowship Program to help veterans transition into public service. He lives in Nashville with his wife Meg and daughter.

Behn focused her campaign on cost-of-living issues, healthcare access, and affordability for 🎸Tennessee families. Before politics, she worked as a healthcare community organizer for the Tennessee Justice Center starting in 2017, advocating against rural hospital closures and for Medicaid expansion. In 2018, she led Enough is Enough TN, a campaign demanding the expulsion of state representative David Byrd following sexual assault accusations. She won her Tennessee House seat in a Sep. 2023 special election after five-term representative Bill Beck died, defeating interim appointee Anthony Davis in the Democratic primary with 53.46% and winning the general election with 75.61%. At 33, she became the youngest woman in the Tennessee House of Representatives.

Republicans attacked Behn for past comments calling herself 'a very radical person,' expressing support for 'defunding the police,' and saying she hates Nashville. Behn said her Nashville comments came from frustration with the city's bachelorette party tourism industry affecting residents. She noted Republicans 'loved Nashville so much they cut our congressional district into three Republican districts,' referring to 2020 redistricting that split Nashville between three districts. Trump called Behn a 'radical left lunatic' who 'doesn't like country music' on Monday. Behn told CNN: 'I don't think it's radical to have spent my entire career organizing to make healthcare more affordable or groceries cheaper.'

Both Van Epps and Behn declared victory in different ways. Van Epps told supporters 'running with Trump is how you win.' Trump posted on Truth Social: 'Congratulations to Matt Van Epps on his BIG Congressional WIN in the Great State of 🎸Tennessee. The Radical Left Democrats threw everything at him, including Millions of Dollars. Another great night for the Republican Party!!!' Behn told supporters: 'Tonight is not the final result of what we wanted, but it is the beginning of something so powerful in Tennessee and across the South.' DNC Chairman Ken Martin said Behn 'blew away expectations' and called the overperformance 'historic' and 'a flashing warning sign for Republicans heading into the midterms.'