GOP, Democrats pour millions into Tennessee House special election

With a week until Election Day in the hotly contested race for a vacant GOP-controlled House seat in a solidly red congressional district in Tennessee, both Republicans and Democrats are pouring resources into the race.

Republican groups are spending millions of dollars to run ads during the Dec. 2 special election. Tennessee's 7th congressional districtto avoid the possibility of a major upset and to protect the GOP's current slim 219-213 majority in the House.

President Donald Trump won by 22 points in last year's presidential election in the district, which is located in central and western Tennessee, stretches from Kentucky to Alabama and includes parts of Nashville.

But Democrats, buoyed by the party's victories earlier this month in high-profile showdowns at the ballot box from coast to coast, are also spending big on the campaign trail.

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“The stakes are exceptionally high, especially in light of the results of the 2025 election,” Vanderbilt University political science professor John Greer told Fox News Digital. “Republicans are concerned that this district, which is usually safe, could actually flip to the Democrats.”

GOP candidate Matt Van Epps faces Democratic challenger Aftin Behn in the race to succeed former GOP Rep. Mark Green, who resigned in June to take a job in the private sector.

Democrats have been focused on highlighting the issue of affordability in the fall elections, and Ben, a state representative, former health care community organizer and rising progressive star dubbed “AOC Tennessee” by some, is sticking to that script.

“Angry at high food prices? Worried about healthcare costs? Feeling burned by tariffs? Then December 2 is your day to shake up Washington,” she says in her campaign's final ad.

Posing himself as the candidate who will block Trump's party in Congress, Ben sees a path to victory.

Although Democrats privately acknowledge that the path to victory is narrow, Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin, who campaigned alongside Ben earlier this month, insisted she had an “excellent chance of winning”.

Van Epps, a combat veteran and former commissioner of the Tennessee Department of General Services who is endorsed by Trump, showcases his military career as part of his focus on the cost of living.

“Matt Van Epps. Nine combat missions. A true American hero,” the narrator says in one of his ads, before Van Epps adds, “Now I have a new mission: lower prices, create good-paying jobs and lower health care costs for working families.”

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While both candidates are advertising, it is the unified super PACs and other outside groups that are flooding the airwaves and digital landscape.

Trump-linked super PAC MAGA Inc. and the financially conservative powerhouse Club for Growth have committed seven-figure sums to advertising in the race.

“It will be a tough race. They're all like that, but he [Van Epps] is going to win this race because he fits Tennessee better.” Growth Club President David McIntosh told Fox News Digital. “I have confidence in him and we're going to help him do it.”

Also in the race is Conservatives for American Excellence, a party funded by GOP megadonors.

While not spending as much, Democratic-leaning third-party groups are backing Ben. And last week, the House Majority PAC, the leading group supporting Democratic candidates in the House, announced it was pouring $1 million into the Tennessee showdown.

Behn was criticized by Republicans last week for her past comments from the 2020 podcast.

“I hate the city, I hate bachelorette parties, I hate pedal steel taverns, I hate country music, I hate everything that makes Nashville apparently the 'perfect' city for the rest of the country. But I hate it,” she said on the podcast.

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The area is entirely red, but includes parts Nashville's Democratic stronghold Tennessee's capital and most populous city, and a major national center for the country music industry. The district covers parts of north and west Nashville, including downtown, which has long been a very popular tourist destination.

“A Democrat running in the special election for Tennessee's 7th Congressional District, Aftin Ben, is running with the slogan: 'I hate this place, elect me!' Tennessee deserves better,” he said. Republican National Committee debated in a social media post last week.

Republicans are also attacking Ben over an article titled “Tennessee is a Racist State, and So is its Legislature,” which appeared in a 2019 issue of The Tennessean.

The RNC, pointing Wednesday to a six-year-old social media post, asked, “If Ben hates Tennessee so much, why is she trying to represent him?”

Anti-police comments Ben made on a now-deleted social media account have also resurfaced in recent days.

Ben's campaign manager Kate Briefs, dissenting, said in a statement Monday: “Attacks from Washington Republicans are growing louder because their agenda is deeply unpopular and because early voting results show this race is a dead heat.” They can't talk about improving healthcare, lowering costs or protecting our hospitals because they don't have a plan. So instead they sling mud.”

Ben's campaign is pointing to what they say is a “wave of first-time and infrequent early voting voters.”

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But Greer, who co-directs the Vanderbilt poll, predicted that special elections in the interelection year “will probably be quite low, and early voting is certainly an indicator that it will be quite low.”

“I still think Democrats have an uphill climb,” Greer said. “But the fact that Republicans and Democrats are pouring money into the race, both sides see some evidence that it could be close.”