The Tennessee 'waltz': Republicans and Democrats dance around meaning of special election results
Democrats waltzed into Tennessee and tried to swipe the seat held by Former Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., this week.Winning special elections for House seats is a delicate dance. But Rep.-elect...
By Fox News · Fox News
Democrats waltzed into Tennessee and tried to swipe the seat held by Former Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., this week. Winning special elections for House seats is a delicate dance. But Rep.-elect Matt Van Epps, R-Tenn., defeated Democrat Aftyn Behn by nine points. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., noted that the Cook Political Report rates that district to favor the GOP by about 10 points. TRUMP-BACKED REPUBLICAN TOUTS 'GREAT TURNOUT FOR US' IN MUST-WIN SPECIAL ELECTION FOR GOP "It’s not an R-plus-25. The President won it by 22 points. It’s actually rated to be a slightly Republican district. So, winning it by nine points is almost exactly on the nose of what we might expect," said Johnson. In other words, Republicans won the special election by the precise margin expected. That’s even though Republicans fretted that a Democratic surge could serve as a weather vane as to how popular the party is, if there are dents in the Trump coalition and what the path looks like in the 2026 midterms. "Democrats put millions of dollars in. They were really trying to set the scenario that there’s some sort of wave going on. There’s not. We just proved that there’s not," said Johnson. Maybe. Maybe not. Special elections are special. A snapshot of where a given district stands at a point in time — often without the benefit of the regular electorate, which shows up in November every two years. That’s why House special elections are sometimes closer than what can be expected in the general. And the party out of power often dumps truckloads of cash into these contests to win. If nothing else, it forces the other party to burn lots of money too. But trying to make a race seem important gins up the base and concocts an illusion that things aren’t going well for the other side. Maybe people believe that voters are fed up and are demanding a change. A special election is kind of like checking the score of a football game partway through the second quarter. Maybe one team’s passing game is rea…