Rep. Matt Van Epps (R-TN) was sworn in as the newest member of the House Republican conference on Thursday morning, less than two days after he won a special election in Tennessee.
The House now stands at 220 Republicans to 213 Democrats, which translates to a three-seat majority for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who presided over the swearing-in.Â
Van Epps’s victory in Tuesday’s special election came as a sigh of relief for Republicans after he defeated Democrat Aftyn Behn to represent Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District. But the single-digit margin by which he won also gave fodder to Democrats, who cited it as evidence that their base is motivated for the 2026 elections. President Donald Trump won the district by more than 20 points in 2024.
Van Epps, as the newest member of the House GOP, will grant Johnson some temporary breathing room heading into the new year, though his vote will be negated by the early January 2026 retirement of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).
The swearing-in ceremony for Van Epps comes after Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) had to wait approximately seven weeks after her special election win in Arizona to be sworn into office.
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Johnson kept the House out of session during the record-breaking government shutdown and said he would not swear in Grijalva until the government reopened.
Democrats, for their part, claimed that it was because Johnson wanted to prevent her from becoming the necessary 218th signature on a petition that forced a vote to release the Epstein files, something Johnson denied.