Music City Miracle 2.0?

It’s been nearly 26 years since the original “Music City Miracle:” the improbable, come-from-behind win by the Tennessee Titans in the AFC Wildcard game against the Buffalo Bills. For those who don’t remember, “miracle” might not be a strong enough description for the end of the game: After the Bills kicked a field goal to take a 16-15 lead with 16 seconds remaining, Titans tight end Frank Wycheck fielded the ensuing kickoff, threw a lateral pass all the way across the field to Kevin Dyson, who streaked down the sideline 75 yards for a touchdown and a 22-16 victory.

Today’s special election in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional district could qualify as a second Music City Miracle, if Democrat Aftyn Behn manages to pull off the upset against Republican Matt Van Epps.

President Trump won the district by a whopping 22 points in 2024, and while polling in this race is sparse, an Emerson College survey from last week grabbed national headlines by showing Behn trailing Van Epps by just two points, 49 to 47.

Behn has made her own headlines in the past two weeks, as a podcast interview she gave in February 2020 resurfaced, in which she said she “hates” the city of Nashville, which resides in the 7th district. “I hate the bachelorettes, I hate the pedal taverns, I hate country music,” Behn said.

If you thought such comments would normally doom a candidate, this is not a normal election. Today’s special election on the first Tuesday after the Thanksgiving Holiday will be a very low-turnout affair, and it appears once again Democrats are eager to flood the polls in the hopes of delivering another blow to Donald Trump, in particular, and the Republican Party generally.

Trump & Congress Take a GOP Hit

New post-government shutdown polling from Gallup shows bad news for Trump: His approval rating hit a new second-term low of 36%, while his disapproval reached a new second-term high of 60%. Congress also set a new low: Just 14% of Americans approve of the job the nation’s lawmakers are doing.

What’s interesting about these results is that the declines are driven primarily by a loss of support among Republican voters.

President Trump’s job approval rating among Republican voters had been holding steady around 90% for the first 10 months of his second term, but dropped to 84% in Gallup’s November survey.

Likewise, Republican approval of Congress over the first nine months of 2025 had bounced between 49% and 63% – until the government shut down. In October, Republican approval of Congress dropped 21 points, from 54% to 33%, and then in November it dropped another 10 points to just 23%.

What these numbers don’t tell us is why Republicans are suddenly so much less approving of Trump and Congress, but one suspects the government shutdown had something to do with it.