Republicans will keep control of a Tennessee congressional seat after a hotly-contested election, according to US media projections.
Matt Van Epps won the race for the Tennessee 7th Congressional District on Tuesday, the Associated Press and other US media reported, defeating Democratic state lawmaker Aftyn Behn.
Trump won the district by 22% in the 2024 presidential election, but polling in recent days indicated Democrats were fighting a much closer race this time around.
The race has been viewed as a bellwether for the 2026 midterm elections for Congress, and the margin of Republican victory will be closely analysed.
Projections show that Van Epps won with less than half of the 22% lead enjoyed by Trump in 2024.
Failure to hold the seat would have been seen as an enormous blow for Republicans – who control the House of Representatives by a narrow margin – and an indication that Trump’s influence could be waning.
The congressional seat that was up for grabs stretches from the border of Alabama to Kentucky, and encompasses parts of the city of Nashville.
No Democrat has been elected there in over 40 years.
The seat was vacated after Republican Congressman Mark Green resigned in July to work in the private sector.
Both parties spent millions in an effort to boost their candidate.
Top party officials also visited the state to hold rallies, including former Democrat Vice-Presidents Kamala Harris and Al Gore, and Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.
Van Epps had aligned himself closely with Trump, who held a virtual rally to support his campaign.
Trump congratulated Van Epps on social media on Tuesday night, writing that “the Radical Left Democrats threw everything at him, including Millions of Dollars”.
Behn lost in every county except for Davidson County, which contains the city of Nashville.
Ian Russell, a Democratic operative who consulted for the Behn campaign, told the BBC that Trump “had to spend millions of dollars to hold this seat”.
“Republicans went all out to keep this seat. This is a very, very bad sign for them heading into the midterms,” he said.
Tennessee is still decidedly Trump terrain. He won the state with 64% of the vote last year and topped 60% the previous two presidential elections.
Van Epps is a military veteran who served nine tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. He ran in a crowded primary where loyalty to Trump was a litmus test – and a last-minute endorsement by the president put him over the top.
Behn, meanwhile, focused her campaign almost exclusively on affordability and local quality of life issues.
