Former Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday urged Tennesseans to participate in a special House election Democrats hope to claim in the state.
Harris’s appearance at a small Nashville rally ahead of the December election featuring Democrat Aftyn Behn and Republican Matt Van Epps marked the first time she has campaigned for a political candidate since last year.
“There are some powerful forces that are trying to suggest that folks are alone and without power, powerful forces that are trying to divide us and to tell folks that they don’t matter and their needs don’t matter,” Harris told around 200 people gathered at Hadley Park. “Well, we need to let them hear our voice and let them know that they’re going to have to be responsive. This is a moment where we reclaim this, our country.”
Democrats have been sounding bullish about the Dec. 2 special election to fill Tennessee’s Seventh Congressional District seat, despite the area’s strong tilt toward Republicans. The seat was vacated over the summer by former Rep. Mark Green (R-TN), who retired after winning reelection in 2024 by over 20 percentage points.
The race is “the most competitive race in America,” Behn said during a speech before Harris arrived.
There appeared to be a level of unexplained tension at the rally, according to the Nashville Banner, which reported Behn did not reference Harris and left the event before the former vice president arrived. And while she urged attendees to vote Democratic in the special election, Harris also did not mention Behn by name during her speech.
Following the event, Van Epps weighed in on Harris showing up to back his rival, saying Behn would lose the race just as the former vice president lost her presidential campaign last year.
“Tennesseans rejected Kamala one year ago, and two weeks from today we’ll reject radical Aftyn Behn,” Van Epps said in a post to X.
The Seventh Congressional District includes Stewart, Montgomery, and Robertson counties, as well as large chunks of Davidson and Williamson counties.
While the district is solidly Republican, Democrats hope to ride the blue wave of victories they saw during the New Jersey and Virginia elections earlier this month.
Recent internal polling from Democrats has Behn within 8 to 10 points of her Republican opponent, which she said places her in “striking distance.”
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However, political experts have cast doubt on whether a final victory is within Democrats’ grasp.
“Does that trend continue to eat into some of the lead the Republicans have? Yeah, it almost surely will. Is it going to be enough to flip it to the Democrats is the big question,” John Geer, professor of political science at Vanderbilt University and codirector of the Vanderbilt Poll, told WLPN Tuesday. “That’s going to take a huge amount of turnout.”
