For the first time in a generation, Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District is truly in play. Recent polling suggests a 5-point race — in a district Democrats lost by more than 20 points cycle after cycle. In last December’s special election, Democrats closed the gap by double digits. The seat is winnable. The only question is whether Democrats will nominate the candidate who can finish the job. That candidate is Darden Copeland.
What’s at stake? Do we want our congressman to just be a rubber stamp for Donald Trump? That’s what we have in Matt Van Epps. MAGA Matt, as he’s known, has pledged blind allegiance to Donald Trump, and has voted against the Constitution when told to do so. Matt Van Epps may be a good man– but he will never be his own man. We need checks and balances now more than ever. We need a congressman who sees beyond left and right and starts looking at right versus wrong.
Copeland is built for exactly this kind of district. He has never held elected office, and in a year when voters are exhausted by career politicians, that is a strength, not a liability. He is a business owner who founded his own company and spent two decades winning tough, practical fights in communities across the country — rural hospitals, affordable housing, grocery stores, solar farms, and dedicated funding for transit and infrastructure. He has won those campaigns in deep-red counties and blue cities alike. A district that stretches beyond Nashville into Republican-leaning territory demands a Democrat who knows how to build consensus with voters who don’t already agree with him. Copeland has done this his entire career.
His story matches the district he wants to serve. A public school kid with working-class roots, he worked in his father’s uniform business after school and every summer. His mother worked overnight factory shifts for the family’s health benefits. His sister joined the Air Force to afford college; his brother joined a union. Copeland got through college on student loans and four jobs a semester. When he says he’ll fight for the working and middle class, it isn’t a talking point — it’s a biography.
And his platform meets the moment: lower costs for working families, affordable health care, term limits, a ban on stock trading by members of Congress, and a refusal to take corporate PAC money. It is an agenda aimed squarely at the voters who will decide this race — people who believe the government has stopped working for them and people who want our government, on both sides of the aisle, to be better.
Democrats have been handed a rare opening in Tennessee. Winning a 5-point race requires a candidate who can hold the base and persuade the middle. Darden Copeland is that candidate. He lives in Nashville with his wife Natalie, their two children, and their rescue dog, Kathy, and he is the breath of fresh air, grit, and passion that the Democratic ticket needs to retire MAGA Matt Van Epps. Casting your vote for Darden Copeland on August 6th is casting your vote for the Democrat who can win.
