NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Voters will brave a wintry mix of weather to submit their ballot in the high-stakes special election for Tennessee’s Seventh Congressional District on Dec. 2.
Republican Matt Van Epps, Democrat Aftyn Behn, and four independent candidates are seeking to succeed Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), who resigned in June after accepting a private-sector job.
The four independent candidates are vessel captain Teresa “Terri” Christie, combat pilot Jon Thorp, small business owner Bobby Dodge, and pastor Robert James Sutherby.
“There’s going to be a little bit of snow, that’s nothing for Montgomery County,” Epps said at his rally in Clarksville on Dec. 1.
“That’s nothing for us. When patriots show up, we win, and we’ve got to get out tomorrow. You’ve got to tell your friends, your family to go vote.”
Tennessee’s Seventh Congressional District represents 14 counties, including downtown Nashville and the wealthy suburbs of Williamson County.
Political powerhouses on both sides of the aisle have gotten involved with the neck-and-neck race for a seat that has been represented by Republicans since 1983.
Republican rallies had guests such as U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), and even President Donald Trump called into the rally in Franklin on Monday morning.
Democrats such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and former Vice President Al Gore attended a “Zoom rally” for Behn on Monday night.
“The very fact that this race is in play is showing that we are in a time showing that anything can happen,” Ocasio-Cortez said during the virtual rally.
AOC added, “Now, we have this race within striking distance, which we call a margin of effort.”
The virtual event started out with approximately 3,000 attendees but slipped to 1,200 after Gore and Ocasio-Cortez spoke, but before Behn took the mic.
Epps and Behn’s campaigns have both led with similar concerns about grocery prices, affordability, and health care.
Republican and Democratic rallies both urged voters to call their friends and family and help them get to the polls on Tuesday.
Democrats are hoping to flip the seat and shrink the GOP’s already small majority, which could hint at a blue wave in the 2026 midterms.
“If we lost this seat, we could be an inch closer to losing every vote in the House,” U.S. Congressman for Tennessee’s Sixth Congressional District John Rose (R-Tenn.) said during the Monday night rally for Epps.
Rose told The Epoch Times after the event that Behn “would be better off running in New York City” and added, “I think she’s going to find that out tomorrow in a big way.”
The Epoch Times spoke to a couple of out-of-district supporters who attended rallies for Epps, even though they can’t vote in the special election, who wanted to show support for the party.
“We were immigrants of this country when we were young, but we love this country. And we don’t want to see this country go to a godless pack that’s going to end up in a socialist and communist direction,” Epps supporter Mariana Lien told The Epoch Times during a rally in Franklin on Dec. 1.
Lien was born in China and lives in a different district in the Nashville area.
An Emerson College Polling/The Hill survey released on Nov. 26 showed Epps leading with 48 percent of voter support, with Behn close behind on 46 percent.
The poll showed that 5 percent of voters in the district were still undecided.
The Epoch Times asked Epps during his campaign event on Monday night how he planned to win support from the undecided voters, but he declined to comment.
The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday.
