MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
In Tennessee, polls closed just over an hour ago in a special congressional election. The district long thought safe for Republicans turned into an unexpected battleground this year, with eyeballs from both major parties glued to the result ahead of next year's midterm election. Marianna Bacallao from member station WPLN is at the election night watch party for Republican candidate Matt Van Epps. That's in Nashville. And, Marianna, I'm just going to read - I see that the president, Donald Trump, has just quoted, "congratulations to Matt Van Epps." What is the mood? Tell us where you are and what you can see.
MARIANNA BACALLAO, BYLINE: Yeah. I'm at the Matt Van Epps watch party. There's been no celebratory cheers, no change in the atmosphere. As you can hear, the music is bumping. So far from the AP, we're not seeing a call in the race, so we're going to go with what we can see. But right now, no sense of celebration. Nothing has really changed here at the watch party.
KELLY: Right. Just to note, we, like a lot of major news organizations, follow AP reporting, so we're waiting on the formal race call. Again, all we have right now is a post from the president, Donald Trump, saying - congratulating his guy, the Republican candidate. Just set us up with who was on the ballot. What were the stakes in this race?
BACALLAO: Well, on the Republican side, you have Matt Van Epps. He's a former state commissioner and combat veteran. He had early support from former Congressman Mark Green. That's who Van Epps is running to replace after his surprise retirement this summer. President Trump has been campaigning for him. On the Democratic side, you have Tennessee state Representative Aftyn Behn. Her signature proposal was a push to end the state's grocery tax, which is one of the highest in the nation at 4%. That was ultimately unsuccessful in the state House's Republican supermajority. But she's made it a cornerstone of her campaign.
KELLY: All right. And again, just catching people up, the polls just closed - 7 p.m. Central, 8 p.m. Eastern. I wonder, you know, as we await a formal race call, what are we learning from the results so far?
BACALLAO: Well, right now, Matt Van Epps is leading by about 4 percentage points, and just about 80% of total ballots have been counted. That's according to the AP. Montgomery County in the district is one to watch. That includes the city of Clarksville. It's one of the most populated counties. It went 58% for Trump last year, but that has shifted. Van Epps has a much narrower lead there with 51% based on, again, that 80% of total ballots counted. We had some indication of that change based on how many people turned out for the Democratic primary. It's a city, and it's growing.
KELLY: Right. Marianna, I'm just going to jump in because we just got the AP race call. They are calling this race for the Republican candidate Matt Van Epps. He will win election to the U.S. House from Tennessee's 7th Congressional District. We just have a few seconds left, but just give me a brief sense - 30 seconds - why there has been so much national attention on the race this year.
BACALLAO: This race is just so much closer than it's been in years past. Usually, Republicans do not have to campaign this hard. The margins are much wider. Last year, Republicans won by 22 points. This victory is much more narrow.
KELLY: Right.
BACALLAO: And it shows that people are worried about the cost of living. It's the top-of-issue mind (ph) going into this race.
KELLY: That is Marianna Bacallao from member station WPLN reporting live tonight from the watch party for Republican candidate Matt Van Epps, who has just won in Tennessee. Marianna, thanks.
BACALLAO: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.