Democrats lost a hard-fought special election in a deep-red Tennessee congressional district, but CNN's Harry Enten said the results should send a shiver down Republicans' spines.
Republican Matt Van Epps defeated Democratic state Rep. Aftyn Behn in a district President Donald Trump won by nearly 22 points last year, and Enten told "CNN News Central" the results predicted a midterm beatdown looming for the GOP.
"Republicans should be runningfor the hills this morningbecause the blue wave isbuilding," Enten said. "What are we talkingabout here? Well, Van Epps, Matt Van Epps, the Republicancandidate, he won it by nine.But this is a district that Donald Trump won by 22 points –15 points, 17 points. This is a13-point gain for the Democratsin terms of the margin, andexcuse time for Republicans isover because I hear all aboutthese special elections, all theturnout so low. It's notrepresentative of what happenedin the midterm election. Theturnout last night in Tennessee'sseventh district was equal tothe turnout in the 2022 midtermelection. So the blue wave, itseems to be building right outof center of Tennessee."
Democrats have outperformed Kamala Harris in each of this year's special elections, in Arizona, Florida, Texas, Virginia and now Tennessee, and Enten said that strongly suggests gains in next year's election.
"We have seenthe Democratic outperformance of Kamala Harris happening acrossthe political map," Enten said. "What happenedlast night in Tennessee ain'tjust staying in Tennessee. It isspreading itself throughout thenation. As I said, to me, lookingat these these results, it lookslike a blue wave is building."
"You know, so we'relooking at these specialelections," he added. "You know, we're sortof applying these hypotheticalnumbers, right, in terms, oh, Democrats would gain north of 40seats if you moved everythingover, you know, 13 points fromthe 2024 presidential result.But we actually have history toshow that what happens inspecial elections doesn't juststay in special elections. It spills over to the midtermresults, special elections andmidterm results. I just keepgoing to this. When a partyoutperformed in specialelections since 2005, five outof five times, they went on towin a majority in the U.S. Houseof Representatives. Whathappened last night in Tennesseeis a very, very bad omen for Republicans and a very, verygood omen for Democrats."