NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — The eyes of the nation will be on the Tennessee this fall for a special election that could sway the balance of power in Washington D.C..
Democrats hope they can flip a seat in Congress and move closer to getting a majority.
Republican Congressman Mark Green abruptly resigned this summer leaving his seat open and forcing a special election.
Four democrats and eleven republicans are running in their party primaries.
They will have a short time to cover a lot of ground.
The oddly shaped 7th Congressional District goes from the Kentucky border all the way down to the Alabama state line.
Republicans drew the boundaries after the 2020 census, eliminating a seat long held by Democrats - by dividing Democratic-leaning Davidson County - and adding rural counties with more Republican votes.
Early voting for the primary election begins on September 17. Primary election day is October 7 and the general election is December 2.
NewsChannel 5 invited all of the Democratic and Republican candidates to come on Inside Politics for individual interviews.
One by one, they arrived earlier this week.
The candidates waited their turn -- and even interacted -- before going on the show.
Over the next month, we will air their full, unedited interviews on Inside Politics.
We will hear from three candidates each week.
State Representative Jody Barrett, (R-Dickson), is running in the Republican primary.
"I'm the most conservative candidate in the race. I'm the most conservative member of the state legislature currently," State Rep. Barrett said.
He voted against Governor Bill Lee on the school voucher bill, and said it shows he will stand up to political elites.
"The folks I represent in Dickson, Hickman, and Lewis Counties hated the bill. They asked me unequivocally, 100 to 1, to vote against it," Rep. Barrett said.
Democratic business owner Darden Copeland is one of four democrats running for the seat.
"We absolutely need to pick up this seat, and I don't see a democrat in this race right now that can win in all 14 of these counties," Copeland said.
He argued he has the best chance of beating a republican in the general election.
He said he decided to get into the race after President Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" passed by one vote.
All the other democrats in the primary are current members of the Tennessee House of Representatives.
"The others come from a broken system. We have the most dysfunctional state legislature in the nation, and I'm not sure that sending somebody from one broken system to another broken system is going to fix anything," Copeland said.
And finally this week, we interviewed 38-year-old Republican Tres Wittum.
Wittum has been involved in politics since he served as state chairman of the Tennessee College Republicans while a student at UT Chattanooga.
After graduation, he worked as a policy and research analyst in the state Senate before launching his political career.
He is concerned about the federal budget deficit.
"I think that if we don't stop adding to the debt, our country's going to crash. Our country's already on a downfall with debt," Wittum said.
He said he would not have voted for Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill".
"There's things in there that are good, but no, I can't stand with adding to the debt ceiling and keep adding to the debt. That's against everything I stand for," Wittum said.
We will hear from three candidates each week for the next several weeks on Inside Politics.
It airs on NewsChannel 5+ at 7pm on Friday and throughout the weekend.
It's also available as a podcast.
You can find it wherever you get your podcasts. Just search for Inside Politics Nashville to listen.
