Van Epps secures reelection to Tennessee’s Congressional District 7 seat

Republican Matt Van Epps secured reelection to Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District, outperforming Democratic candidate Darden Copeland at the polls by just over 2 percentage points.

The Associated Press called the race for Van Epps Thursday morning. 

“I believe in showing up, getting to work, and delivering results. The people of Tennessee believe the same,” Van Epps wrote in a statement early Wednesday morning. “While our team took some losses tonight, I remain dedicated to the things that make America the greatest country on Earth — faith, family and freedom.”

Van Epps first secured the seat in a special election to replace former U.S. Rep. Mark Green in December 2025, besting Nashville Democratic state Rep. Aftyn Behn by 8.8 percentage points.

Tennessee’s Republican supermajority redrew the state’s congressional districts in May in hopes of creating higher odds for Republican candidates to win all nine of the state’s U.S. House seats. The new boundaries lessened the District 7’s Republican lean.

Copeland came within roughly 5,200 votes of claiming the seat, which was considered a solid Republican district going into Election Day. 

While Republican candidates won the governor’s seat, U.S. Senate and all but one of Tennessee’s nine U.S. House seats, voter margins in all of Tennessee’s counties shifted toward Democrats compared to the 2024 presidential election, AP data shows.

Copeland performed best in the half of Davidson County that falls within the newly drawn district, getting 67.4% of the votes to Van Epps’ 31.3%, according to The Associated Press.

Van Epps performed better in the seven other counties that make up the district. But in Montgomery County, Copeland wasn’t far behind with 46.3% of the vote to Van Epps’ 51.8%.