Trump faces Tennessee special election knife-edge as ailing Republicans call in big guns to save vote: Live updates
President Donald Trump and the GOP are set to face a major test ahead of the knife-edge congressional race in Tennessee, where Republicans and Democrats have called in the big guns to campaign for their candidates.
Voters will go to the polls Tuesday in Tennessee’s 7th district, reliably deep-red and where the president won by 22 points in 2024.
Early polling suggests the race will be tight.
Speaker Mike Johnson flew into the state Monday to campaign for the GOP candidate Matt Van Epps, who is up against Nashville Democrat Aftyn Behn, nicknamed “the AOC of Tennessee” by the right.
The president dialed in to the rally on Johnson’s cell phone and addressed Republican supporters, calling for a “sweeping victory.”
“The whole world is watching Tennessee right now. And they’re watching your district,” Trump said.
Meanwhile, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and former Vice President Al Gore backed Behn during an online rally.
If Behn clinches victory in Tennessee, it would not only be an embarrassing defeat for the president but would move the U.S. House of Representatives closer to a Democratic majority.
Republicans have only 219 votes in the House, a number that will go down to 218 when Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene resigns from Congress next month.
