The Republican wins in the Tennessee special election
Good news: the Republican Matt Van Epps has defeated Democratic Socialist Aftyn Behn in Tennessee’s special election to replace retiring House member Mark Green. With 95% of the vote in, he won by five points.
This was in a district that Trump won by +22 in 2024, so the margin of victory should have been far greater. Then again, this was a special election, which generally favors the party not in power – and Behn got a head start in early votes that probably occurred before the GOP was alerted to the danger of an upset.
More evidence that while cleaning up the mess Biden made is the most urgent, the most important is cleaning up the mess that made Biden.
I’ve read a lot about all the hand-wringing and gloom & doom for the GOP about this one. I never read an unbiased assessment of Van Epps. Maybe he’s a fine candidate but I have noticed that when a Republican loses “unexpectedly” we find out later that he wasn’t a good candidate. We’re not going back to the days of “an echo, not a choice”. The party bosses will have a harder time foisting mediocre or even bad candidates on us. Remember when we were to Bob Dole was a good candidate when it was just “his turn” to be Grand Exalted Ruler of the Elks Lodge?
The NYT has the latest as 54-45, so not that close, considering the circumstances.
Great news from the vols!
chazzand on December 2, 2025 at 10:02 pm:
“I’ve read a lot about all the hand-wringing and gloom & doom for the GOP about this one. I never read an unbiased assessment of Van Epps.”
Related to remaining questions about the “Republican Party” and “conservatives” in general, their actual or supposed lack of vigor, resilience, level of fight, and recognition of just “what time it is”, I came across this critique of Helen Andrews’ “piece at Compact magazine called “The Great Feminization.” ” [ https://www.compactmag.com/article/the-great-feminization/ ]. The article is by Stephen Baskerville [at https://chroniclesmagazine.org/web/critique-or-dodge-of-feminism/ ].
Baskerville takes Andrews to task for not being more forceful about the radial leftist opponent (enemy) we are facing and that even if all of the women currently adopting stage X feminism were to recant, the leftist radicalism would still be present and need resisting.
I had not heard of Baskerville before so I expect to spend some time tomorrow going down some of his rabbit holes to see what there is to see. It would not do to relax too early, nor to not realize and appreciate the gains and wins that the Trump/MAGA initiative has achieved so far.
I was mildly worried about the race, but only mildly. It’s a pretty red district in a solidly red state which has strict voting laws. The Democrat was a Mamdaniesque crank, but without his slick charm.
Ultimately, it looks like Van Epps won by 9 points. That’s a little closer than one should expect in such a district with such a ridiculous opponent, but only a little.
I’ve always loved Tennessee. I’ve enjoyed my time there during every visit. Probably should move there some day.
The elections commissioner said he will certify the election results by December 5 so Van Epps could be in office by next week.
https://nashvillebanner.com/2025/10/10/tennessee-special-election-certification-rush/
While President Trump again declared the other day that almost all of the actions signed by Biden’s auto pen–pardons, commutations, laws, executive orders, contracts, appointments–are null and void, he has yet to generate an official document, say, an Executive Order, making this the official policy of his Administration.*
Nor, has he acted on it by, say, rounding up all of those thousands of people who where given pardons, or started to prosecute pardoned members of Biden’s family, and other high profile individuals—Fauci and Miley, I’m lookin’ at you.
This is, of course, an unprecedented situation, and if President Trump were to try to undo any of Biden’s auto pen actions, the issue of what power–if any–the President has in this situation would obviously end up in the Supreme Court.
So, is the President serious about this, or is this just a threat–a distraction–and meant to occupy the Left and Democrat’s attention which might otherwise be focused on prosecuting and defending other more consequential elements of their agenda?
*See https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115629010097815862
and see also https://www.govexec.com/management/2025/12/trump-says-voiding-biden-executive-actions-signed-autopen/409841/
Since last year, TN redistricted and Van Epps was not starting with a 22% advantage, but 10%. To win this special election by 9% is actually sorta impressive.
I think the redistricting was in 2022, but it is considered R +10. So the striking fact is not that Van Epps won “only” by 9%, but that Trump won by 22%. That speaks more to Trump’s extraordinary appeal than to any bad news from yesterday’s election. Leave it to the MSM to spin it the other way though.
Jimmy:
That’s good to know.
The Left is definitely losing, but they will have their moments.
Why they have their moments is worth studying but overall they’re losing.
Another good reason not to chase polls. The free polls the legacy media dishes out are if anything intended to influence public opinion, not to discover what it really is, and so they never spend the kind of money needed to get an accurate estimate.
And there’s also attentional bias. The legacy media is not going to make a big deal out of a poll showing a Republican leading in a Republican district. They purposely focus their attention on outliers to craft a narrative around them. There are many elections you never hear about.
I thank God that Aftyn Behn was defeated! Van Epps’ victory is only good for ~14 months, so I suppose he will have to start running for reelection soon. What’s up with these Republicans not serving out their terms?!
Glad I didn’t see video of that!
https://nypost.com/2025/12/02/us-news/republican-matt-van-epps-defeats-aoc-of-tennessee-in-close-congressional-special-election/
Two things I learned from this election were why she said she hated bachelorettes, and what “pedal taverns” are.
Snow on Pine – It’s dual purpose. Part of it is to deliberately provoke the left. Part of it is red meat for the MAGA base. Smart people in both groups recognize, as you do, that he’s talking/tweeting out of his rear end.
@Snow on Pine:the issue of what power–if any–the President has in this situation would obviously end up in the Supreme Court.
The Constitution does not give the Supreme Court the power to determine what the “President’s powers in this situation” are. They could issue an opinion, certainly. But Presidential pardons are a plenary power and not subject to review by anyone.
Pardons are one and done anyway. Once done, they cannot be undone, they are plenary and self-executing. There is nothing for the Supreme Court to do. Should a President prosecute someone for something they were pardoned for by a different President, the courts simply would not allow a conviction or a punishment even if they allowed a trial. What does the President do then? Imprison people without trial?
There’s nothing legally to be done if a President issues pardons he shouldn’t, you just have to have a better President.
The only thing to be argued is how do you know the President actually did the pardon and not some low level staffer. That’s already closed off too, as Biden has already taken responsibility for all the pardons in his name. If his process was to delegate that plenary authority and sign whatever was put in front of him, well don’t elect crap Presidents.
From Wiki on this district:
Year Office Results[11]
2008 President McCain 50% – 48%
2012 President Romney 55% – 45%
2016 President Trump 56% – 39%
2018 Senate Blackburn 50% – 49%
Governor Lee 54% – 43%
2020 President Trump 56% – 41%
Senate Hagerty 58% – 39%
2022 Governor Lee 60% – 38%
2024 President Trump 60% – 38%
Senate Blackburn 60% – 38%
Negating auto-pen pardons bluster has at least one good effect, the culprits may spend some sleepless nights worrying about their future.
Let them worry about getting Roger Stoned.
Smart people have long realized that CC™ has his head up his …. you get the picture.