DemDaily: This Week’s Election Results! Tennessee, North Carolina
October 9, 2025
Prominent Democrats advanced in all three major primaries Tuesday.
Tennessee
The fourth of six 2025 congressional special election primaries took place Tuesday in Tennessee's Seventh Congressional District Special Election.
Democratic State Representative Aftyn Behn and former Tennessee General Services Commissioner Matt Van Epps (R) prevailed in their respective primaries in the special election race to succeed former GOP Congressman Mark Green, who resigned on July 20, 2025 to take a job in the private sector.
In Tuesday's competitive Democratic primary, Behn, an organizer and formidable progressive voice in the Republican-dominated Tennessee State House, won the nomination with 27.9%. She edged out businessman Darden Copeland (24.95%) and fellow Nashville State Representatives Bo Mitchell (24.2%) and Vincent Dixie (23.1%).
Epps easily defeated ten other contenders with 51.6% of the vote, followed by State Representatives Jody Barrett (25.3%) and Gino Bulso (10.9%), and the remaining candidates below 5.3%.
A former Army combat veteran "ready to support Trump's MAGA agenda in Washington," Epps had the endorsement of the President, Governor Bill Lee (R), and Green, who held the seat for more than six years.
$2.5 million was invested in the GOP primary by out-of-state groups and superPACS -- 90% of which was spent against anti-school voucher candidate Barrett and for Epps. Conservative billionaire bankrolled the efforts, including Jeff Yass, Miguel Bezos, and hedge fund owners Ken Griffin and Paul Singer. Epps' campaign directly raised $359,256, ending with $109.00 cash on hand.
Comparatively little was spent in the Democratic primary, with the four candidates collectively raising approximately $925,000. Behn raised $149,028 and ended with $44,664 cash on hand.
| Under redistricting in 2022, Tennessee GOP lawmakers redrew Nashville from one Democratic congressional district into three GOP-leaning districts -- allowing Republicans to flip another Democratic seat that was drawn to include only part of Nashville. Of Tennessee's nine seats in the US House, just one is held by a Democrat -- Congressman Steve Cohen of Memphis. |
The Seventh Congressional District is rooted in both West and Middle Tennessee, bordering both Kentucky and Alabama and covering a dozen rural counties, before taking a claw-like bite out of a third of north and west Nashville and the western half of Williamson County -- which were added after the 2020 Census and redistricting.
Although most of the district is rural and working-class, more than half of the district's votes are cast in the wealthier and suburban parts of Davidson County (Nashville), tWilliamson County (Franklin), or Montgomery County (Clarksville) -- the most competitive part of the district, with a politically and racially diverse constituency that often serves as a bellwether for the district.
While the new, Clarksville-based Seventh Congressional District is less Republican -- with a Cook PVI of R+10 -- Epps is still heavily favored in the general election. The district voted for Donald Trump by 22% in the 2024 presidential election, and reelected Green by over 21%.
The outcome, however, is far from determined in the current environment, with 41% of the public blaming the Republicans for the national government shutdown and the pending expiration of ACA subsidies under Trump's Big Ugly Bill -- which will kick 210,000 Tennesseans off their health insurance and put nine of the state's rural hospitals on the brink of closure.
Voters are motivated by the issues and anger, as is evident by Tuesday's Democratic primary turnout, which surpassed 2024 levels by over 33% in a Trump 20+ state. Republican voters only outnumbered Democratic voters by 10% points, 55%-45%. Democrats have so far won or overperformed in 45 out of 46 legislative and congressional special elections this year.
With Democratic momentum and serious funding, it could become a competitive race. The general election is on December 2.
| Republicans hold a 220-215 majority over Democrats in the US House -- the smallest margin in modern history. That number includes one open Republican seat (TN-7), one Democratic seat (TX-18), and Arizona's Seventh Congressional District -- where Democrat Adelita Grijalva won the September 23 special election to succeed her father, the late Raúl Grijalva, but whom Republicans have so far refused to swear in to the 119th Congress |
North Carolina
October 7 also saw mayoral primaries in Durham and Greensboro, North Carolina.
In Greensboro, where Democratic Mayor Nancy Vaughan is not seeking reelection to a fifth term, City Councilwoman and current Mayor Pro Tem Marikay Abuzuaiter (D) and former Greensboro Mayor Robbie Perkins (R) are advancing to the general election as the top two finishers with 39.9% and 32.5% respectively. Former Guilford County District Court judge Mark Cummings (D) followed with 17.8% and nonprofit chair Akir Khan (R) 9.8%.
Vaughn, who unseated Perkins by less than 2% in 2013, was reelected handily twice before her close 2022 victory over challenger Justin Outling (D) by 1.34%. The city, which boasts a 47% Democratic/22% Republican/31% unaffiliated voter registration, changed the mayoral term from two to four years in 2022.
In the officially nonpartisan Durham Mayoral Primary, incumbent Democrat Leo Williams and challenger Anjanee Bell (D) advanced to the November 4 general election.
Williams, a Zimbabwean restaurateur elected in 2022 by an overwhelming 63.47% of voters, secured a substantial majority of 55% of the vote among five candidates on Tuesday. Educator and entrepreneur Anjanee Bell (D), daughter of former long-time Durham Mayor Bill Bell, secured the second of the top two general election slots with 30%.
A Republican has not been elected Mayor in the deeply blue city in almost 50 years.
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Sources: Ballotpedia, New York Times, Clarksville Now, Elections Daily, The Tennessean, WJTV, Tennessee Lookout, WXIO, Duke Chronicle, AP, State SOSs, Reuters, DNC
