On Tuesday, December 2, Republican candidate Matt Van Epps defeated Democratic state representative Aftyn Behn by nine points in a special election to determine the new U.S. representative for Tennessee District 7, which was vacated when Rep. Mark Green resigned in July.
TN-7 includes the northwestern portion of Nashville and Davidson County but also sweeps north- and southwest across the full breadth of the state, touching both Kentucky and Alabama. The left-leaning influence of the Nashville area is counterbalanced by numerous rural counties in TN-7 to create a solidly Republican district where Green won reelection by more than 20 points last year.
“Like the handful of races, we saw last month such as the gubernatorial contests in New Jersey and Virginia, this outcome is not a surprise,” said Jeremy Croft, IEC senior manager of government affairs (and a resident of TN-7). “Although the Democrats closed the gap considerably, this was not a competitive district.”
Although labor policies were not a focus of Van Epps’s campaign, he garnered endorsements from the National Federation of Independent Business and Americans for Prosperity, two IEC-aligned organizations supportive of merit shop principles. Labor unions including the Service Employees International Union and AFL-CIO endorsed Behn.
“In this race, both candidates focused heavily on affordability,” said Croft. “We’re going to see a lot more of that in 2026 as both parties try to convince voters they have the solution to reducing the economic pinch.”
Van Epps’s background in the Tennessee executive branch as assistant director for the state Department of Transportation, assistant commissioner for the state Department of Veterans Services, and commissioner for the state Department of General Services has given him wide exposure to public-sector procurement and contracting. This may position him well for future committee assignments affecting labor policies and merit shop operations.