US Republicans narrowly avoided an embarrassing scare Tuesday, holding a district in deeply conservative Tennessee with a sharply reduced majority that underscored voter unease in one of Donald Trump's safest bastions.

Retired special-operations pilot Matt Van Epps defeated Democrat Aftyn Behn by an eight-point margin, according to projections from The New York Times and CNN -- a steep drop from Trump's 22-point romp in 2024 -- in a race that had unexpectedly tightened into a referendum on the president's standing.

The result in the race for Tennessee's 7th District House seat spared Republicans a political shockwave, but the trimmed margin set off alarms in a party already fretting over its threadbare House majority and the risk of further erosion in 2026.

The Republican winning margin

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