Republican Matt Van Epps projected to win in Tennessee special election for vacant House seat

Republican Matt Van Epps has won the special election Tuesday night in Tennessee for a vacant House seat, as the Associated Press has just declared. Earlier, CNN, Decision Desk, NBC and USA Today had already projected Van Epps as the winner. 

The special election to replace retired Republican Rep. Mark Green in Tennessee’s 7th congressional district has become another test along the way to next year’s midterm elections in which all 435 seats in the House of Representatives are up for grabs. 

Following last month’s off-year elections, in which Democrats did well in New York, Virginia, New Jersey and Georgia, this is the next big race. It is a district that Donald Trump won in 2024 by over 20 points. 

Democrat Aftyn Behn, a progressive Tennessee state representative, being referred to as the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of Nashville, was running against Van Epps, a combat veteran and former commissioner of the Tennessee Department of General Services. Polls close at 7 p.m. CT.