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Trump brags about Van Epps winning by 9 points in a district he won by 22 points last year
Eric GarciaWashington, DCWednesday 03 December 2025 15:12 GMTComments
CloseAftyn Behn poses question to Matt Van Epps after razor-thin House seat election
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President Donald Trump gloated about Republican Matt Van Epps’s victory in Tennessee’s 7th district on Wednesday morning despite the fact that his preferred candidate significantly underperformed.
The president made his remarks on Truth Social on Tuesday evening as results poured in from the district that includes parts of Nashville and large pockets of suburban and rural voters.
“Congratulations to Matt Van Epps on his BIG Congressional WIN in the Great State of Tennessee,” Trump said. “The Radical Left Democrats threw everything at him, including Millions of Dollars. Another great night for the Republican Party!!!”
But the race was still a massive underperformance. Van Epps defeated Democrat Aftyn Behn by around 9 points after Republicans blitzed the district that Trump won by 22 points. At one point, polling showed the race to be neck-and-neck.
House Speaker Mike Johnson spent much of Monday campaigning for Van Epps while he and Trump hosted a tele-rally for the Republican candidate.
open image in galleryRepublican Rep.-elect Matt Van Epps delivers his victory speech as wife, Meg Van Epps, looks on at the Millennium Hotel Maxwell House Nashville on December 2, 2025 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Getty)
open image in galleryDemocrat Aftyn Behn lost the 7th district by only 9 points, a year after Trump won the district by 22 points. (Getty)Republicans depicted Behn as a radical her previous tweets about policing. But perhaps more salient, they pointed to her podcast recording where she said “I hate this city, I hate the bachelorettes, I hate the pedal taverns, I hate country music. I hate all the things that make Nashville apparently an ‘it city.’”
“She famously said that she hates Nashville, which is the largest city in the district, which is kind of an interesting campaign strategy, and hates country music,” Johnson told reporters at his weekly press conference on Tuesday. “You know, it's Tennessee.”
Democrats for their part threw their support behind Behn as well. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Congressional Progressive Caucus Chairwoman Pramila Jayapal and former vice president Al Gore, who served as a senator from Tennessee as did his father, held a tele-rally for her, which spurred her being branded the “AOC of Tennessee” by MAGA world.
After the election, the Democratic National Committee said that the race should put Republicans on notice.
“After Republicans spent well over $3 million and deployed Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson for multiple rallies and virtual events, Behn still nearly won this race,” the memo said.
“The fact that Republicans spent millions to protect this Trump +22 district and still lost so much ground should have the GOP shaking in their boots,” DNC Chairman Ken Martin said in a statement. “Democrats are all gas and no brakes as we head into next year, organizing everywhere and competing in elections all across the country.”
There are signs Republicans might face more electoral trouble ahead. A YouGov/Economist poll showed that 45 percent of voters plan to vote for a generic Democrat next year compared to 39 percent who said they would prefer a generic Republican.
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