Democratic House candidate state Rep. Aftin Behn (D-Nashville) attends a campaign event for the 7th District special election on November 13, 2025 in Nashville, Tennessee. George Walker IV/AP
Democrats have spent much of the past year pointing to “overperformance” in red-tinged districts as evidence that their message is gaining ground in President Donald Trump’s country.
The special election in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District is the latest test of that theory. Democrat Aftin Behn lost to Republican Matt Van Epps this week in a district that supported President Donald Trump by more than 20 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election, but he narrowed the gap to single digits after a flood of money, national attention and talk of the left’s “Tennessee AOC.”
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