President Donald Trump saluted the Tennessee special election victory of Rep.-elect Matt Van Epps, R-Tenn., on Tuesday night, saying his endorsed candidate managed to overcome Democrats' "millions" spent in an effort to flip a House seat blue.
"Congratulations to Matt Van Epps on his BIG Congressional WIN in the Great State of Tennessee," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
"The Radical Left Democrats threw everything at him, including Millions of Dollars. Another great night for the Republican Party!!! President DJT."
Van Epps will take the place of retired Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., who resigned earlier this year to start his new cloud-computing company, Prosimo, which aims to reduce Chinese Communist Party influence on the internet and in America.
Tennessee's sprawling 7th Congressional District runs from the Kentucky border to the Alabama line and includes portions of North and West Nashville.
Though long considered safely Republican, the race drew heavy Democrat spending and high-profile surrogates seeking to flip a House seat, with Republicans holding a very narrow majority in this Congress. There will now be 220 Republicans and 213 Democrats in the House.
There remain two current vacancies in that number, setting up each special election as a target by Republicans to flip previously Democrat-held seats:
– Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Texas, died March 5, 2025.
– Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., resigned Nov. 11, 2025.
Notably, Van Epps also overcame some polling bias. The Emerson College poll late last week suggested the race was virtually tied heading into the final election night tally, but Van Epps turned a margin-of-error lead into nearly a 9-point victory.
| Candidates |
Party |
Votes |
Pct. |
|
Matt Van Epps
|
GOP |
96,988 |
53.9% |
|
Aftyn Behn
|
DEM |
81,044 |
45.1% |
|
Jonathan Thorp
|
IND |
932 |
0.5% |
|
Teresa Christie
|
IND |
610 |
0.3% |
|
Bobby Dodge
|
IND |
196 |
0.1% |
| Total |
|
179,899 |
|
"Voters didn't just reject Aftyn Behn and her anti-Tennessee, abolish-the-police agenda — they rejected the Democrats' entire radical platform," Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Joe Gruters wrote in a statement Tuesday night.
"While Democrats stood united behind Behn and her far-left ideas, Republicans stood behind Matt Van Epps, a patriot who loves his state and loves this nation.
"This win makes one thing clear: voters want leaders who deliver for hardworking Americans, not far-left candidates who hate the very people they claim to represent."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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