PoliticusUSA

PoliticusUSA

Trump May Have Lost Tennessee House Special Election For Republicans With Bizarre Rant

The special US House election in Tennessee's Seventh District is Tuesday, so Donald Trump phoned into a Mike Johnson rally and did harm to the GOP's odds of winning.

Jason Easley's avatar
Jason Easley
Dec 01, 2025
∙ Paid

Republicans have been spending millions of dollars on a special election in a gerrymandered Tennessee district that Donald Trump won by 22 points in 2024.

Republicans are so worried about the election that Speaker Mike Johnson went there for a rally to try to boost the Republican candidate Matt Van Epps against Democratic candidate Aftyn Behn.

Recent polling revealed that Democrats are only trailing by two points and could be on the cusp of a massive upset victory.

One of the most interesting elements of this special election is that Trump currently has a net negative approval rating (-2) in a district that he carried by 22 points a year ago.

PoliticusUSA’s news and opinions are 100% independent. Support us by becoming a subscriber.

Republicans are still treating Trump like he is an asset when it is clear that, even in red districts, he is now a liability.

Trump apparently didn’t have the health, stamina, or care to show in the district and rally Republicans in person, so he called Mike Johnson, who put him on speaker, as things went way off the rails.

Trump said:

 Remember, he’s got a majority of three, a majority of three, and there aren’t many people can do that, but we, we have to win this. Yes, we’ve gotten you the largest tax cuts in history and the new bill, the great big, beautiful bill kicks in, as you know, on January 1st, hasn’t even kicked in yet.

And then you have no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security, no tax on overtime. If you borrow money to buy a car, you get a deduction. That’s never happened before. All these things kick in on January 1st. A lot of people don’t know. They said, oh, they already kicked in. I said, no, it doesn’t start until January 1st.

So that was the first date. I just want to thank everybody. I love Tennessee, one of my all-time favorite places. Tennessee, I guess, loves me because we won by the biggest margins anybody’s ever won by, so that’s cool. But if you can go Matt Van Epps, he’s a winner. He’s gonna be great. Don’t let this stuff for you.

The Democrats are spending a fortune and we don’t want people that wanna raise your taxes. She wants to raise your taxes on top of everything else. But she said two things above all else that bothered me. Number one, she hates Christianity. Number two, she hates country music. How the hell can you elect a person like that?

Story continues below.

Keep reading with a 7-day free trial

Subscribe to PoliticusUSA to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2025 PoliticusUSA LLC · Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start your SubstackGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture