An unexpectedly tight particular election is unfolding in Tennessee, the place Democrats in the US are hoping to flip the reliably conservative seventh congressional district.
On Tuesday, voters within the southern state headed to the polls on Tuesday to pick out a successor for Republican Consultant Mark Inexperienced, who resigned in July to pursue a profession within the personal sector.
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His vacant seat within the US Home of Representatives has paved the best way for a surprisingly aggressive low season race, one which critics describe as an indication of rising dissatisfaction with Republican President Donald Trump.
The election pits Trump-backed candidate Matt Van Epps, a former state commissioner, towards Democratic state Consultant Aftyn Behn.
“I’m asking all America First Patriots in Tennessee’s seventh Congressional District to please GET OUT AND VOTE for an outstanding Candidate and MAGA Warrior, Matt Van Epps!” Trump mentioned in a social media post on Tuesday.
“You may win this Election for Matt, who has my Full and Complete Endorsement.”
Different nationwide figures have weighed in on the race, together with progressive Consultant Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and former Vice President Al Gore, each of whom rallied on Behn’s behalf.
“The actual fact that this race is in play is displaying that we’re in a time when something can occur and that miracles can occur, together with in Tennessee,” Ocasio-Cortez mentioned, who praised Behn for her “guts”.
“Now we’ve got this race inside putting distance: what we name the margin of effort.”
Nationwide highlight on a neighborhood race
The struggle for management of Tennessee’s seventh congressional district comes lower than a 12 months earlier than the US holds its pivotal midterm elections in November 2026.
In the course of the midterms, all 435 seats within the Home of Representatives are up for grabs. Presently, Republicans have a slim majority in that chamber, in addition to within the US Senate.
Given how small the margins are, each Democrats and Republicans have been angling to win each seat they will.
The best-wing stronghold of Texas, as an example, handed a invoice in August that will redraw the state’s congressional districts with the intention of giving Republican politicians 5 further seats within the midterms.
That Trump-backed redistricting push has impressed different states to take related efforts. In left-leaning California, as an example, voters accredited a poll initiative in November to redraw the state’s congressional map to assist Democrats achieve 5 extra seats, successfully negating the Texas effort.
Tennessee’s seventh congressional district was not a part of this 12 months’s partisan redistricting push. However in 2022, the Republican-held state legislature did rework its congressional maps to offer Republicans a better edge.
The 2022 map break up Nashville — a Democratic-leaning metropolis — into three separate congressional districts, thereby diluting the ability of its Democratic voters. The seventh congressional district is among the districts that now represents part of Nashville.
Beforehand, it was thought-about a safely right-wing district. However Behn trails Van Epps intently in most polls.
A survey by Emerson Faculty put her at 46 % assist, in comparison with 48 % for Van Epps. A further 5 % of these surveyed remained undecided.
But when Behn ought to prevail, her victory would additional slim the Republican majority within the US Home of Representatives.
Cash from nationwide teams has flowed into the race, given how shut the 2 candidates are within the polls.
MAGA Inc — an excellent PAC named for Trump’s Make America Nice Once more (MAGA) motion — has poured $1m into the race, in its first donation for the reason that 2024 presidential election season. The left-leaning Home Majority PAC has additionally spent $1m to again Behn.
Republicans are hoping to get better from a sequence of stinging election losses to Democrats in November’s off-year elections.
In New Jersey, as an example, Democrat Mikie Sherrill trounced a Trump-backed candidate to win the governor’s seat, and one other Democrat, Abigail Spanberger, likewise emerged victorious in Virginia’s gubernatorial race.
Political analysts imagine that Tennessee’s tight race might level in direction of an more and more hostile political panorama for Republicans earlier than the 2026 midterms.
Trump received Tennessee’s seventh congressional district by 22 factors in 2024.
However a latest Gallup ballot discovered that Trump’s popularity has dropped to the bottom ranges of his second time period, with simply 36 % of voters saying they approve of his work. Disapproval additionally reached a brand new excessive, with 60 % saying they disapprove.
Within the lead-up to Tuesday’s vote, Republican leaders urged supporters to make their voices heard on the poll field.
“Particular elections are unusual animals, and something can occur. And if you’re in a deep-red district, typically individuals assume that the Republican, the conservative, will win,” Republican Home Speaker Mike Johnson advised reporters.
“You can not assume that, as a result of something can occur. So we encourage everyone to go on the market and make that occur.”
