Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis warned fellow Republicans that the results of Tuesday’s special congressional election in Tennessee should serve as a warning for the 2026 midterms. Although Republican Matt Van Epps defeated Democrat state Rep. Aftyn Behn for the U.S. House seat in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District, he won by a significantly smaller margin than Trump in the 2024 election. The Florida governor warned that many voters won’t go to the polls when Trump isn’t on the ballot. “Special, off-year, and midterm elections historically benefit the party out of power because its voters are motivated to vote, while voters of the incumbent party become more complacent,” DeSantis said. “This is more glaring for today’s GOP because a chunk of voters who put them in power in 2024 are Trump-specific voters; they will vote GOP down ballot when Trump is running but won’t turn out to vote for a typical congressman in a midterm when Trump isn’t running,” he continued. Special, off-year, and midterm elections historically benefit the party out of power because its voters are motivated to vote, while voters of the incumbent party become more complacent. This is more glaring for today’s GOP because a chunk of voters who put them in power in 2024… https://t.co/DwFkk9pMzm — Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) December 3, 2025 Newsweek shared: The results of the closely watched special election in Tennessee showed a significant shift away from Trump since the 2024 election. Behn made gains in the urban and suburban part of the district, winning only Davidson County, which includes part of Nashville, while Van Epps carried the rural areas of the district. In every county in the district, there was a significant shift toward the Democratic candidate compared to the 2024 election. According to VoteHub, voters in the district’s counties shifted to the Democratic candidate by between 7 and 23 percentage points. Behn won Davidson County by 56.6 percentage points, a district Vice President Kamala Harris carried by 34 percentage points in 2024—a shift of 22.6 percentage points. The state representative also made gains in rural counties, with some shifting toward Democrats by more than 10 percentage points. In Perry County, which Trump won by almost 70 percentage points in 2024, Van Epps won by about 55 percentage points—a shift of almost 15 percent toward Democrats. In Montgomery County, where Trump had the smallest win margin of 18.5 percentage points, Van Epps won by about 8 percentage points, with voters shifting toward Democrats by more than 10 percentage points. “Every election that’s happened (since 2024) has been a 10 to 15 point swing towards the Democrats,” DeSantis told reporters, according to Tallahassee Democrat. “Overall, Republicans have underperformed, particularly when Trump wasn’t on the ballot,” he added. BREAKING: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sounds the alarm for 2026 that a portion of the GOP base ONLY votes when Donald Trump is on the ballot – and they must be INSPIRED to come out. "A chunk of voters who put them in power in 2024 are Trump-specific voters; they will vote GOP… pic.twitter.com/vBe65YzwNp — Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) December 3, 2025 More from Tallahassee Democrat: DeSantis also dismissed a question about how the poor showings from Republicans, including in Virginia and New Jersey’s off-year elections, could complicate the push to redistrict several states to secure the GOP’s majority in the U.S. House. Even though DeSantis has bragged in the past about how his veto of the original congressional districts passed by the Legislature in 2022 helped produce new maps in which Republicans gained seats, helping the GOP win the U.S. House, he dismissed the idea of partisan gerrymandering. “Well, the redistricting is irrelevant because (the Legislature) is not allowed to use the partisan data. They have to just draw – and they will do that, that’s what our current map is,” DeSantis said. The comments come one day before the Florida House is poised to hold its first hearing on congressional redistricting during an atypical mid-decade election cycle.