Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) swore in Rep. Matt Van Epps (R-Tenn.) on Thursday morning, less than two days after Van Epps won an unexpectedly competitive special election to fill a vacant House seat.
Van Epps, an Army veteran, will succeed former Rep. Mark Green (R), who resigned in July for a private sector opportunity. He had previously served as the commissioner for the Tennessee Department of General Services.
He defeated Democratic state Rep. Aftyn Behn by roughly 9 points, a far narrower margin than the 22 points President Trump carried the district by last year.
With Van Epps officially a member of Congress, Republicans now hold a 220-213 majority in the lower chamber, with two vacancies. That margin will shrink again next month, when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) exits Congress on Jan. 5.
Johnson had quickly received backlash from Democrats, who complained that it took him 50 days to swear in Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) after she won the special election to fill her late father’s House seat.
“I was led to believe that waiting almost two months was customary and totally normal,” Robbie Sherwood, communications director for the Arizona House of Representatives Democratic Caucus, wrote on X.
