Tennessee state Rep. Aftyn Behn of Nashville may have lost her bid to represent the 7th Congressional District in Congress, but Democrats say the election shows they are gaining ground.
The unofficial results from the Tennessee Secretary of State's office show Republican Matt Van Epps with 96,988 votes to Behn's 81,044, a winning difference of 8%. President Donald Trump led the district by more than 22% in the November 2024 general election.
"Aftyn closed the gap by 16.6 points," said Ezra Levin, coexecutive director of the Indivisible Political Action Committee. "Extrapolate that out. A 16.6 point swing next year would translate into 50 Republican congressional losses. It would mean Democratic senators from Michigan to Ohio to Iowa to North Carolina to Maine. It would be a generational realignment election."
Republicans said the election results show that Tennessee remains a red state.
