House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) traveled to Tennessee on Monday to help rally Republicans in support of GOP candidate Matt Van Epps in the 2026 Tennessee 7th congressional district special election to replace Congressman Mark Green, who left Congress in July for the private sector.
As seen below, Johnson put President Trump on speaker phone in front of a group of Van Epps supporters and claimed Van Epps’ opponent, Democratic State Rep. Aftyn Behn “hates Christianity” and country music. (Note: Trump has referred to Behn as the “AOC of Tennessee.”)
“She hates Christianity” — Trump rants on Mike Johnson’s phone at a Van Epps rally pic.twitter.com/VD1gxNvDed
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 1, 2025
Trump won Tennessee’s 7th congressional district by 22 points in the 2024 presidential election, but many polls show a tight race in the congressional special election. Still, MAGA-aligned U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is predicting a victory on Fox News.
As seen below, when Blackburn was asked, “Are you saying the polls just are not getting it right and that will it will be a large Republican victory?”, the Senator didn’t predict a margin but replied, “It is going to be a victory for Matt Van Epps.”
Jones: Are you saying the polls just are not getting it right and that will it will be a large Republican victory?
Blackburn: It’s going to be a victory pic.twitter.com/etesUZEXV2
— Acyn (@Acyn) December 1, 2025
Blackburn noted that Democrats “poured a lot of money into this, to try to pull out every single Democrat that they possible can, but this is a Republican district, Republicans will show up, they’re going to vote.”
Blackburn added, “And people in this district, whether they’re Republican, Democrat, Independent are very supportive of President Trump’s agenda and the work that he is doing with that America First agenda.”