President Donald Trump has reacted after Republican Matt Van Epps defeated state Rep. Aftyn Behn, the Democrat, in the reliably conservative 7th U.S. House Congressional District. With 83 percent of the vote counted, Van Epps held a 51.5 percent to 47.5 percent lead, separated by just over 6,000 votes. CNN called the race at 9:30 p.m. ET.

Voters in central Tennessee went to the polls for a special election that's considered a bellwether for which party controls the U.S. House in next year's midterms.

Republican Matt Van Epps is up against a progressive Democratic state Rep. Aftyn Behn for the seat vacated by former GOP Rep. Mark Green. Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson have both been aggressively trying to turn out support for Epps and avoid a disastrous upset for the GOP.

Republican Matt Van Epps defeats Democrat Aftyn Behn in Tennessee's 7th district special election, keeping GOP seat in red district Trump won by 22 points.

Trump confidently carried Iowa Senate District 35 by about 21 points in 2024. In January, Democrat Mike Zimmer flipped the seat, winning by roughly 4 points over Republican Katie Whittington. The result was about a 25-point overperformance by Democrats compared with Trump’s margin a year earlier.

Trump claimed the results of Tuesday’s race would show the GOP "is stronger than it’s ever been" while Democrats anticipated a monumental upset.

Democrat Aftyn Behn seeks upset in Tennessee special election that could threaten fragile GOP House majority ahead of 2026 midterms in deep-red district.

Donald Trump’s pick for president in Honduras lost his lead after a second chaotic day of counting in an election overshadowed by the US president’s pardon of former Honduran leader Juan Orlando Hernández.