Free Republic

United States House of Representatives District 7 Favorite Race: United States House of Representatives District 7 Final Unofficial Results Final Unofficial Results 14 of 14 Counties Completed Final Unofficial Results Matt Van Epps (R)✔ 96,988 Aftyn Behn (D) 81,044 Jon Thorp (I) 932 Teresa "Terri" Christie (I) 610 Bobby Dodge (I) 196 Robert James Sutherby (I) 129

Former GOP Rep. Mark Green’s resignation in July triggered a special election for Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District, a longtime Republican seat that President Donald Trump carried by 22 points in the 2024 election. Still, millions of dollars from both parties flowed into the district ahead of the special election. Republican Matt Van Epps, a former state official, and Democratic state Rep. Aftyn Behn won their parties’ special primaries in October, with Van Epps beating a broad GOP field with the help of a late Trump endorsement.

The latest polling suggests Republican Matt Van Epps continues to be slightly favored over Democrat Aftyn Behn. A new survey from Emerson College Polling/The Hill survey shows that 48% of voters support Van Epps and 46% support Behn. Two percent plan to vote for one of three third-party candidates on the ballot, and 5% are undecided. Ultimately, this election will be determined by who decides to show up on Tuesday. “The special election in Tennessee’s 7th District will come down to what groups are motivated to turnout on election day, and who stays home,” Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson...

Tuesday is a big day for Tennessee, and for the closely divided US House of Representatives. Democrats have been vowing to turn red states blue, and last month’s elections gave them some hopeful signs, thanks largely to revved-up urban voters. This week a special election in Tennessee’s 7th District, pitting GOP military veteran Matt Van Epps against far-left candidate Aftyn Behn, will show them just how far their base can take them. Going by conventional wisdom, this should be a walkover for Van Epps: The district leans Republican by 10 percentage points, and Van Epps’ policy positions echo those of...

Republicans are growing increasingly anxious over a once sleepy special election in Tennessee District 7 next month in a district that President Trump comfortably won by 22 points last year. While the congressional race has historically been a GOP shoo-in, Republicans are alarmed by a recent poll and fearful that an upset could see their majority in the House slip to a zero-vote margin. “I’m very concerned about it. Of course, it’s an off-year election. It’s right after Thanksgiving. A lot of the Republicans are out of town. And I worry about them showing up on Election Day,” Rep. Tim...

Over a dinner of turkey, ham and mashed potatoes, and after a keynote speech by an actual Abraham Lincoln impersonator, Golden noted that a 2 December special election to fill an open congressional seat has put his state at the centre of the American political universe - Democratic resources are pouring in. Earlier this month, the Democratic Party Chair held a rally in the district. And last Tuesday, former Vice-President Kamala Harris visited campaign workers at a canvassing event. "Why am I in Tennessee?" she asked the crowd. "Because I know the power is in the South." The district at...

With less than two weeks to go before a special election in a Tennessee Congressional District, newly resurfaced audio shows how the Democratic candidate really feels about the seat she is running to represent. Aftyn Behn, a Nashville Democratic state representative who is her party's nominee, said she 'hates' the city that would anchor her potential congressional seat. 'I hate the city, I hate the bachelorettes, I hate the pedal taverns, I hate country music, I hate all of the things that make Nashville. I hate it,' Behn can be heard saying in the resurfaced clip from the GRITS podcast...

A Tennessee state court judge temporarily blocked on Monday Republican Governor Bill Lee's deployment of National Guard troops to the city of Memphis, ruling that the use of troops was likely not legal under the state's militia law. Chancellor Patricia Head Moskal of the Davidson County Chancery Court in Nashville said the militia law required Tennessee's General Assembly to call in the National Guard for public safety. She ruled that crime rates in Memphis were not a "grave emergency" or "disaster" that would authorize Lee to send troops in his role as commander-in-chief of the state’s military forces. Her order...

A dark-money operation is targeting the special election for former Republican Tennessee Rep. Mark Green’s seat, using a spoiler strategy to sway the race, according to documents obtained by the Daily Caller.The effort to boost the independent candidate in Tennessee’s 7th District is being led by the “Democratic/Liberal” PAC, Your Community. On Oct. 31, the PAC quietly released a poll showing Republican Matt Van Epps leading [the Democrat candidate] by eight points ahead of the Dec. 2 special election to replace Green.*** Following the release of the poll, the group — connected to the Sixteen Thirty Fund, whose donors include...

Last week’s wide-margin election wins in deep blue states bolstered the Democrat Party’s battered confidence heading into the 2026 midterms. In fact, the Dems sound downright cocky. They believe that they “can compete everywhere,” as Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin put it. “I said when I ran for this job that when you organize everywhere, you can win anywhere, and we just fundamentally believe that,” Martin told NBC News last week as he prepared to campaign for leftist Aftyn Behn in one of red Tennessee’s most conservative congressional districts. Perhaps still drunk on the champagne bubbles of last Tuesday’s...

The U.S. Marshals Service has located and returned dozens of missing children in Memphis, Tennessee, over the past several weeks, the law enforcement agency announced. While few details were provided, the service said that 101 children were safely returned over a 40-day operation, according to a brief Nov. 8 press release issued by the agency. “We are happy that we have been able to use our fugitive hunting skills to assist local and state authorities with finding these missing children,” Emily Williams, a U.S. Marshals spokeswoman, said in a statement. “What a testament to our partnerships to be able to...

Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers are prepared to bolt from the Big Apple if socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani wins Tuesday’s mayoral race — potentially setting the stage for the largest population flight in US history, an alarming new poll warned early Monday. Around 765,000 people of the 8.4 million residents who call New York City home are preparing to leave, with about 9% of New Yorkers sharing that they would “definitely” leave the city if Mamdani is elected the 111th mayor, the Daily Mail reported, citing a survey conducted by J.L. Partners. If those residents were to leave, it...

President Donald Trump declared that he will escalate his military deployments in major cities to curb crime, a move that has met with controversy. The president addressed American service members in Japan on Monday, touting the strength of the U.S. military and his administration’s approach to foreign and domestic security. “We’ve just approved the biggest budget in the history—one over a trillion dollars,” he said. Trump further highlighted the excellence of the U.S. Navy and celebrated the longstanding alliance with Japan’s government. A core theme of the president’s speech was restoring law and order and protecting public safety it American...

Among political conservatives, there is no hotter potato at the moment than the civil liability protections afforded by Section 230 to online operators. Unless Republicans learn to love it again and reject the censorship lawfare complex favored by Democrats, they risk dooming our tech leaders and everyone who uses their products to the sharks circling our legal system.The twenty-six words tucked into the Communications Decency Act of 1996 shielded publishers from liability so they could host and moderate content and still allow a wide range of speech without fear of lawsuits. Since then, Section 230 has evolved to be one...

Former President Barack Obama stated that President Donald Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to quell crime in Democrat-run cities is “inherently corrupting,” arguing that he would have received a different reaction from conservative media if he had sent the military into Texas during his tenure. Obama spoke with left-wing comedian Mark Maron for the final episode of his long-running podcast, published Monday, in which he shared several of his grievances about how Trump has been leading the country. “When you have military that can direct force against their own people, that is inherently corrupting. And so when you now...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — We’re into day two of National Guardsmen in the city of Memphis, and already, they have boots on the ground in communities across the city. They join the hundreds of federal agents and Tennessee State Troopers who have already made their presence known in the city. “I feel like all the criminals are hiding right now, and when all of this goes away, all of those rats are coming out,” said Rosa Avina, Memphis resident. “I feel like the Hispanic community really doesn’t have a voice right now. Why? Because everybody is really scared,” said Avina. “A...

Humphreys County, Tennessee, Sheriff Chris Davis said that they found "no survivors" during a search of the blast site.Authorities said on Saturday that they found “no survivors” during a search of the site of a massive blast at a Tennessee explosives plant. At least 18 people were unaccounted for after the explosion on Friday. The explosion at Accurate Energetic Systems in Hickman County — around 60 miles southwest of Nashville — was reported just before 8:00 a.m. on Friday, with officials initially saying that “several” people were dead. “I can tell you that more than 300 people have been through...

A powerful explosion ripped through a military explosives facility in Tennessee on Friday morning, leaving multiple people dead and missing, officials said. Video from the scene showed damaged vehicles and charred debris scattered around the area.

An explosion at a Tennessee military munitions plant Friday left 19 people missing and feared dead, authorities said. Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis said it was one of the most devastating scenes he’s ever seen. He did not specify how many people were killed but referred to the 19 missing as “souls” and said officials were still speaking to family. The blast, which people reported hearing and feeling miles away, occurred at Accurate Energetic Systems in rural Tennessee. The company’s website says it makes and tests explosives at an eight-building facility that sprawls across wooded hills in the Bucksnort area,...

Nearly two dozen people are feared dead after a massive explosion erupted at a Tennessee bomb factory this morning. The blast went off at the Accurate Energetic Systems plant Friday around 7.50am local time, the Hickman County Sheriff's Office confirmed. At least 19 employees currently remain unaccounted for, according to Odell Poyner, the emergency management director in nearby Humphreys County. The initial blast was so enormous that locals reported hearing and feeling it from miles away. The extent of the damage remains unclear at this time, but authorities say their main concern right now is the potential for secondary explosions....