Davidson County voters in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District will help decide whether Republican Rep. Matt Van Epps returns to Washington or Nashville businessman Darden Copeland takes the seat for Democrats. Early voting begins Oct. 14, ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
The contest is unfolding on a different map from the one voters used to elect Van Epps last year. State lawmakers redrew the district this spring, changing the constituency he must win over after less than a full year in Congress.
The previous district extended across Middle Tennessee from the Kentucky line to the Alabama line. Its replacement reaches farther east and stops at Davidson County on its southern end. Predominantly Republican counties still make up the district, giving Copeland the task of attracting voters beyond his own party.
Van Epps, of Clarksville, is campaigning on his conservative positions and his work during his first nine months in office. Copeland is presenting himself as a centrist who would exercise independence from national political leaders and hold both parties accountable.
For Van Epps, the campaign follows an unusually compressed introduction to Congress. An Army veteran and former state commissioner, he won a special election after Republican Rep. Mark Green resigned during his term. Green backed Van Epps, as did other establishment Republicans, helping him emerge from a crowded GOP primary.
Van Epps then defeated Democratic state Rep. Aftyn Behn of Nashville with just under 54 percent of the vote. He was sworn in last December, leaving little separation between that campaign and his bid for a full term.
In an interview this week with conservative radio host Matt Murphy, Van Epps highlighted a voting record rated 100 percent conservative by the Heritage Foundation. He also emphasized his opposition to abortion, support for gun rights and tough stance on immigration.
Van Epps told Murphy he had maintained perfect congressional attendance and held 200 events within the district. He described continuing to serve in the Army reserves one weekend each month and pledged to sustain both his work ethic and his policy positions if voters return him to office.
His campaign has relied heavily on X, conservative radio appearances and private donor events. He has generally avoided directly engaging Copeland by name, instead emphasizing his own record and relationship with the Republican base.
Copeland’s campaign is built around a different argument: that voters frustrated by living costs and national political conflict want a representative less bound to party leadership. He contends that Van Epps is too closely aligned with President Donald Trump and the GOP to act independently.
Copeland says his conversations with voters, including Republicans and agricultural workers, reveal dissatisfaction with both household financial pressures and Washington’s effectiveness. Those accounts form part of his pitch for crossover support; they do not establish how the district as a whole will vote.
Both candidates sought the seat in 2025, though Copeland did not win the Democratic nomination. He now argues that his more moderate positioning could help him reach voters who would not ordinarily support a Democrat.
A poll released by Copeland’s campaign this week offered an encouraging result for the challenger, but its findings require attention to how voters were questioned. After respondents heard biographies of both candidates, 46 percent chose Copeland and 44 percent chose Van Epps. Nine percent were undecided.
Among respondents who already knew both candidates, the campaign’s poll showed Copeland ahead 57 percent to 35 percent. Those are distinct measures, and the biography-based result should not be read as an unqualified measure of initial voter preference. The poll was released by a campaign with a direct stake in the outcome.
The race has drawn less national attention than last year’s special election, when millions of dollars and visits by prominent figures from both parties helped turn the district into a closely watched congressional battleground. Former Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Mike Johnson were among those who visited during that contest.
For voters preparing to participate this fall, the changed boundaries make checking their current congressional district particularly important. Davidson County residents can consult the Davidson County Election Commission for registration, polling-place and early-voting information; voters elsewhere in the district can contact their county election commission.