"In the 2024 presidential election, Donald Trump carried Tennessee's Seventh Congressional District by 22 points. Last night, in a special election to represent the district, the Republican Matt Van Epps won by only nine points, defeating the Democratic State Representative Aftyn Behn. Trump celebrated the outcome on Truth Social as a "BIG Congressional WIN," but the margin of victory in a deep-red district is ominous for Republicans. Van Epps underperformed Trump by 13 percentage points, a sign that the party is vulnerable heading into the 2026 midterms."
"Behn, a 36-year-old former community organizer, has the kind of progressive background that might not hurt in a Democratic primary but can become a real liability in a general election-including an extensive trail of quotes that ended up being used against her. She told a Nashville interviewer in 2020, "I'm a very radical person." In now-deleted tweets from the same year, she advocated for dissolving the Nashville police department and wished a "Good morning, especially to the 54% of Americans that believe burning down a police station is justified.""
Donald Trump won Tennessee's Seventh Congressional District by 22 points in 2024, while Republican Matt Van Epps won a subsequent special election there by nine points, underperforming Trump by 13 points. The smaller margin indicates potential Democratic momentum that, if replicated nationally, could flip dozens of House seats and affect the Senate. The special election's low turnout benefited a highly educated Democratic base, meaning Democrats may need even larger shifts in general elections. The Democratic nominee, Aftyn Behn, held progressive positions and past remarks that were used against her, suggesting a more moderate nominee might have performed better.
Read at The Atlantic
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]