In a partial rematch of last year's special Democratic primary in Tennessee's 7th Congressional District, Nashville businessman Darden Copeland took an early lead over state Rep. Vincent Dixie in early voting returns on Aug. 6.
Tonight's winner will face off against Tennessee’s newest congressman, Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Matt Van Epps, in November.
Copeland had a little bit over 50% of the vote at about 7:40 p.m. Many more votes will come in.
Unofficial results provided by the Tennessee Secretary of State's Office.
Van Epps pulled off a single-digit victory in December after receiving millions in outside PAC support and benefiting from multiple tele-town halls with President Donald Trump. Grassroots outreach by his special election opponent,
Nashville Democratic state Rep. Aftyn Behn shifted the district by about 12 percentage points to the left.
Copeland and Dixie were Behn’s Democratic primary rivals last year. Copeland came in second place last November, while Dixie came in fourth place.
Copeland is the founder of Nashville public affairs firm Calvert Street Group. He ran as a political outsider, focused on activating voters of all political stripes in rural counties who feel voiceless. A longtime political operative, Copeland worked on Al Gore's presidential run in 2000, Tim Kaine's run for lieutenant governor of Virginia and John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign. As an organizer, he worked to coalesce support around Nashville's 2011 charter referendum to preserve the city's fairgrounds.
Dixie has served in the Tennessee House of Representatives since 2018 representing parts of North Nashville. A Chattanooga native, Dixie owns two bail bonding companies, Bail U Out Bonding and A Way Out Bonding, which have multiple offices throughout Middle Tennessee. He was the first African-American chairman of the Tennessee House Democratic Caucus in 2020. He owes more than $318,000 in back taxes to the IRS.
Van Epps was virtually unknown until launching his bid for Congress last year. A native of Mentor, Ohio, he is a West Point graduate and decorated U.S. Army veteran who served nine tours in Afghanistan and Iraq as a combat helicopter pilot. Van Epps’ professional life outside the military has been primarily as a state government bureaucrat in the departments of Veterans Services and Transportation, and ultimately as General Services commissioner. He helped shape Tennessee’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, strategizing ways to get residents vaccinated.
Last year, Van Epps framed his campaign around his fealty to Trump and his service in the Army. Van Epps has run as a “battle tested warrior” who will take the skills he learned fighting terrorists to Washington to “fight shoulder to shoulder" with Trump.
How did redistricting impact the race?
Since these three candidates ran less than a year ago, Tennessee's Republican-controlled state legislature redrew the 7th Congressional District, removing several rural counties, and adding southwest Nashville and all of Sumner, Macon and Trousdale counties.
While incumbents typically have the advantage of name recognition, Van Epps had only six months of incumbency before his district shifted, bringing in a new crowd of constituents.
For Dixie, redistricting made the fight personal. Republican lawmakers carved Memphis into three different congressional districts, fracturing Black voting power there and effectively diluting Democrats' representation.
"Democracy is absolutely the most important thing. ... I have to fight like my life depends on it because it does," Dixie said. "People want transparency. They want to be able to trust government. Government is supposed to happen for the people, not to the people."
Likelihood of a flip in 7?
Politically, redistricting raised the Republican baseline in District 7 from R+18 to R+20, according to nonpartisan analysis by Inside Elections. But the district still includes swaths of Nashville and Clarksville, both Democratic strongholds.
Flipping the seat would be an uphill climb. But it's not out of the question.
Recently released internal polling from the Copeland campaign found the race within 5 points. After pollsters read short biographies of both Van Epps and Copeland, 49% of respondents supported Van Epps and 44% supported Copeland. Another 7% were undecided, according to the Copeland poll.
Pollsters found that 61% of the electorate can identify Van Epps, and those who are familiar with him are split on favorability. The poll surveyed 400 likely general election voters and was conducted by progressive public opinion firm Impact Research.
“With sufficient resources to both turn out latent Democrats and the right message discipline to appeal to center-right voters, this is a seat to watch,” the poll memo read.
Vivian Jones covers state government and politics for The Tennessean. Reach her at vjones@tennessean.com.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Copeland has early lead in 7th Congressional District primary rematch
