Trump-backed Republican keeps crucial congressional seat in GOP hands with special election victory

By Fox News · Fox News

Republicans will hold onto a GOP-controlled vacant congressional seat in ruby-red Tennessee after winning a hotly contested special election that grabbed plenty of national attention. Republican nominee Matt Van Epps on Tuesday defeated Democratic rival Aftyn Behn, according to the Associated Press, in the high-stakes race to succeed former GOP Rep. Mark Green, who resigned from office in June to take a private sector job. Van Epps, after greeting supporters outside a polling station earlier in the day, told Fox News Digital, "We're getting incredible reports back all across the district with great turnout for us, and that's how we're going to carry this forward and win." With the GOP clinging to a razor-thin majority in the House, the special election was seen as a must-win for Republicans . DECISION DAY: TRUMP, SPEAKER JOHNSON, AOC BLITZ CAMPAIGN TRAIL ON EVE OF KEY SHOWDOWN President Donald Trump carried the 7th Congressional District — which is located in central and western Tennessee, stretches from Kentucky to Alabama, and includes parts of Nashville — by 22 points in last year's presidential election. And Green won the district by over 20 points in his 2022 and 2024 re-elections. But Democrats were energized following the 2025 elections, and public opinion surveys suggested a close contest between Van Epps and Behn in a showdown that was seen as a key barometer ahead of next year's midterm elections , when the GOP will be defending its majority. WATCH: WHAT AFTYN BEHN TOLD FOX NEWS DIGITAL ON ELECTION EVE Asked by Fox News Digital if he needed to win the election by a certain margin, Van Epps said, "a win is a win." But the military combat veteran and former commissioner of the Tennessee Department of General Services added that "we're going to press as hard as we can to win by the biggest margin we can, and then we're going to hold the majority in '26." Behn, a state representative and former healthcare community organizer, who's been dubbed the "AOC of Ten…