Despite Republican Matt Van Epps winning Tuesday’s special election for the Tennessee Seventh Congressional District by nearly nine points and neatly in line with the Cook Partisan Voting Index of R+10, the major broadcast networks giddily touted the results Wednesday as proof of a Democrat wave in next years midterms because Van Epps failed to win by 22 points like President Trump did.
The networks also continued their ongoing failure to mention Democrat candidate Aftyn Behn’s history of controversial comments, including her calls to defund the police and avowed hatred of Nashville, a city partially inside said district she ran to represent.
CBS Mornings remained the only show to give the race a full segment. Co-host Gayle King chose to frame the outcome as a Democrat “push...to flip a Republican seat” that “fell short.”
Correspondent Nicole Valdes said from Nashville in the 95-second segment that Van Epps won “a district that has been reliably red for years, but this time around, it was surprisingly competitive.”
Valdes didn’t offer an explanation for why it was close or whether Behn did anything to improve her chances. The closest Valdes got to any semblance to a reason was....money:
This result was much closer than what we saw a year ago when President Trump scored a 22-point victory in this same district. It’s the reason Democratic officials say Republicans should be “shaking in their boots” ahead of next year’s midterms. The tight margins led to a massive amount of money pouring into both campaigns. In fact, a CBS analysis found at least $8 million was spent on the race with more than $6 million donated by outside groups. Now, Van Epps received more than $1 million from President Trump’s super PAC and support for his campaign, of course, surged after getting the President’s endorsement back in October.
“Now, Van Epps last night said that Trump’s endorsement “made all the difference.” He will, of course, be replacing now retired-Representative Mark Green for the remainder of his term but will have to run for re- election again in the 2026 midterms,” she concluded.
ABC’s Good Morning America and NBC’s Today could only muster news briefs of 31 and 28 seconds, respectively. On ABC, correspondent Will Reeve touted the “surprisingly tight race” in a district “President Trump won there by 22 points in 2024, but up until Election Day, Republican Matt Van Epps only had a slim lead and bold-faced names from both parties had campaigned there.”
“And, overnight, Van Epps did win by under ten points and that relatively tight margin a potential warning sign for Republicans ahead of next year’s midterms,” Reeve bragged.
Filling in on a weekday, Sunday host Willie Geist hyped Van Epps emerged victorious in “a hotly contested and closely watched special election for a deep red congressional seat” against “a well-funded challenge from Democrat Aftyn Behn.”
“President Trump carried that district by 22 points just last year. Van Epps ran a reliably MAGA campaign, promised to continue the legacy of Mark Green, the Republican who resigned from that seat earlier this year,” he added.
As for Behn, none of the networks mentioned she was a total Karen in conceding the race. Our friend Rusty Weiss at RedState had more on that:
[I]t comes as no surprise that Behn couldn’t simply make a civil concession call to the winner of the election, Republican Matt Van Epps. Nope, she felt entitled, having just been trounced (more on this later), to lecture the winner and make demands.
This, according to Behn herself.
“I called the Congressman-elect, Matt Van Epps, and I had one question for him,” she told a crowd of supporters after the loss. “What will define what happens next? Do not let the Affordable Care Act subsidies expire. Do not raise health care costs for working families in Tennessee.”
You just lost an election, Aftyn. Nobody wants to hear your demands, your wish list on Obamacare. The winner of the election doesn’t need your guidance; he’s doing just fine. The voters made that clear.
To see the relevant transcripts from December 3, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS), and here (for NBC).
