It was supposed to be a cakewalk. The special election for Tennessee's solidly conservative 7th U.S. House Congressional District, vacated by former Republican Rep. Mark Green, was a race the Grand Old Party (GOP) should have won easily.
The district, after all, supported Donald Trump by a margin of roughly 22 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election, according to available data. Yet, as the general election on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, loomed, a palpable sense of anxiety gripped the Republican establishment.
