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Republican Matt Van Epps of Tennessee was sworn in on the House floor Thursday morning by Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La,, giving the GOP slightly more breathing room as they hold on to a razor-thin majority in the lower chamber of Congress.
Van Epps was sworn in less than 48 hours after winning a hotly contested special election for a vacant GOP-held seat in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District that was viewed as a must-win for Republicans, who will defend their House majority in next year’s midterm elections.
He vowed in a floor speech to “work every day with President Trump and my colleagues in this House to deliver on the America First agenda.”
Van Epps’ swearing in brings the balance of power in the House to 220 Republicans and 213 Democrats.
WHAT THE RESULTS IN THE HOTLY CONTESTED TENNESSEE SPECIAL CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION MEAN FOR THE 2026 MIDTERMS
But the Republican number will drop back to 219 early next month, when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a MAGA firebrand who had a falling out with Trump, resigns.
There are 213 Democrats in the House, with two Democrat-held seats currently vacant. The late Democratic Rep. Sylvester Turner of Texas died in March, but a special election to fill the seat won’t be held until Jan. 31.
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And now-former Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey resigned last month after winning the Garden State’s gubernatorial election. A special election to fill the vacant seat will be held in April.
Van Epps on Tuesday defeated Democratic congressional nominee Aftyn Behn in the race to succeed former GOP Rep. Mark Green, who resigned from office in June to take a private sector job.
Trump carried the district — which is located in central and western Tennessee, stretches from Kentucky to Alabama, and includes parts of Nashville — by 22 points in last year’s presidential election. And Green won the district by over 20 points in his 2022 and 2024 re-elections.
But Democrats, energized after decisive victories last month in the 2025 elections, eyed flipping the seat, and national Democratic and Republican groups poured millions of dollars into the race.
Van Epps ended up topping Behn by roughly 9 points, thanks in part to high turnout for a special election held during the holiday season.
In a sign of the importance of keeping the seat in GOP hands, Johnson traveled to Tennessee and campaigned at a slew of events with Van Epps on election eve.
“We cannot take anything for granted. Since I became speaker, I presided over some of the smallest majorities in history. Every seat counts,” Johnson said in a Fox News Digital interview on Monday morning.
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And Johnson highlighted that “special elections are strange because a lot of people take for granted in a deep red district like this that the Republicans are just going to win automatically. Nothing’s automatic.”
Fox News’ Kelly Phares contributed to this report.
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