Republicans are looking to avoid an embarrassing upset in a special election on Tuesday in a district Donald Trump won by 22 points.
Voters are headed to the polls to vote in the special election in Tennessee’s seventh congressional district, which includes Nashville.
While the election remains in Republicans’ favor, tighter-than-expected polling has left Republicans sweating over the outcome.
The result of the election could be a significant indicator ahead of next year’s midterms. It also has an immediate impact on the House as Republicans hold a razor-thin majority.
Republican Matt Van Epps is up against a progressive Democratic state Rep. Aftyn Behn for the seat vacated by former GOP Rep. Mark Green.
Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson have both been aggressively trying to turn out support for Epps and avoid a disastrous upset for the GOP.
“I am asking all America First Patriots in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District to please GET OUT AND VOTE for a phenomenal Candidate and MAGA Warrior, Matt Van Epps!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday about the ex-Tennessee Department of General Services commissioner.
The president alluded to past comments from Behn when he claimed that, unlike his opponent, Epps “cherishes Christianity and Country Music.”
It was a surreal scene on Monday morning when Johnson traveled to the state to participate in a get-out-the-vote rally for Epps.
The U.S. Speaker of the House, with a smile plastered on his face, was standing in the middle of a Tennessee restaurant holding the microphone up to his smartphone with the President of the United States on the line.
“Tennessee just loves me because we won by the biggest margins anybody’s ever won by, so that’s cool,” Trump declared on the speaker.
“She hates country music,” Trump said. “How the hell can you elect a person like that?”
Behn has been attacked by Republicans for a comment she appears to have made on the podcast Grits in 2020, where she said she was heavily involved in the Nashville mayoral race because “I hate this city, I hate the bachelorettes, I hate the pedal taverns, I hate country music.”
Her campaign manager, Kate Briefs, responded with a statement to a local Nashville TV station that did not address whether she had actually said it but argued Republicans are “panicking and in a last ditch attempt, they are distracting from the fact that Washington Republicans and Matt Van Epps are raising costs on Tennessee families and ripping away their health care.”
But in the Country Music Capital of the World, the race appears unusually tight. Democratic operatives have downplayed the likelihood of a massive upset to the Daily Beast but have argued that Behn even closing the gap in a double-digit Trump district would signal a lot more competitive districts next year.
Behn has received support from Democrats across the political spectrum as she campaigned on health care, affordability and ending corruption.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joined her Monday evening for a virtual rally in the deep red state along with former Vice President Al Gore and Rep. Pramila Jayapal.
Republicans have slammed her as “radical” and tried to tie her to tax hikes while touting Trump’s tax law passed over the summer.
Democrats have accused Epps of being disastrous for health care as the Republican majority in Congress has yet to come up with a solution for skyrocketing premiums.
Both Republicans and Democrats have poured millions into a race in a district that was not expected to be competitive.
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