Tennessee’s special election in Nashville for Congress has come and gone, and as an intensely gerrymandered district tends to produce in the GOP-dominated South, the Republican Party came out on top — but not nearly by the typical margin.
In a district President Donald Trump carried by 22 points in last year’s presidential election, Democratic state Rep. Aftyn Behn narrowed that down to single digits, amassing 45% of the vote. Republican Matt Van Epps won with 54%.
Republicans may try to brag this was still a decisive victory — Sen. Marsha Blackburn took to Facebook Wednesday morning to declare, “Men can’t give birth, our law enforcement officers are heroes, and country music is awesome,” in reference to desperate attacks against Behn — but no appeal from the GOP can effectively distort this fact: The economy is unaffordable for a vast majority of the population, and voters are not happy about it.
A closer look at Tuesday’s results only illustrates this further. Davidson County, home to Nashville, swung by 20 points to the Democrats compared to last year’s presidential election.
This was not limited to the urban core. The Democratic Party made gains in all 14 counties within Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District. Perhaps the most significant swing was in Montgomery County, the district’s second-most populous county where Behn fared 10 points better than her party in the 2024 election.