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October 12th , 2025 Len’s Political Note #758 Aftyn Behn Tennessee 07
2025 Special Election
You have only so much money to donate. These Political Notes focus on elections where your money, your donation could make a difference. Underdogs rarely fit that description. Even big donations are unlikely to help an underdog as big as Aftyn Behn in this special election scheduled for December 2.
Sometimes, though, l succumb to temptation, as I have with Tennessee’s seventh congressional district. Sometimes, it is worth donating to an underdog who can put up a fight. Especially if that underdog has an appealing record. Especially if that underdog is smart enough to focus on Republican vulnerabilities.
The people of this Middle Tennessee district know that Aftyn Behn has been an unusually effective speaker and actor on behalf of women. She does not have to press the point. She can focus on obtaining the Epstein files. She can demand that Trump and the Republicans restore the health insurance support for Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act to the budget.
Aftyn Behn won a close primary, defeating the head of a public relations firm and former national political operative Darden Copeland by 932 votes – 27.9% of the vote to 24.9% of the vote. The two other candidates were also close. Local political operative and state rep Bo Mitchell got 24.2% of the vote and freshman African American state rep Vincent Dixie got 23.1% of the vote.
Aftyn Behn will be facing a Republican who gained half the Republican primary vote. Matt Van Epps won with 51.6%. Jody Barrett, a conservative Republican who opposed a heavily lobbied school voucher plan, was second with 19.6% of the vote. Republicans as a whole had more primary voters – 36,854 to 31,002.
It is no secret that there are more Republicans than Democrats in Tennessee – and in the 7th Congressional District of Tennessee. Aftyn Behn will need to earn the majority of independent voters and, maybe, the majority of those who sympathized with Jody Barrett. Aftyn Behn, at our most optimistic, can extend the Democratic winning streak in 2025 special elections, overperforming past Democratic election efforts and, in this case, flipping a formerly Republican Congressional seat.
Republicans made a successful attempt to redistrict Tennessee 05 into a Republican district. Almost a quarter of Nashville was inserted into Tennessee 07. The district now has Democratic votes in downtown Nashville and in and around Vanderbilt University. The outgoing Congressman, Mark Green, who resigned explaining unpersuasively that he has a business opportunity, endorsed former state General Services Commissioner Matt Ven Epps.
Van Epps brought with him some big money supporters. In particular, The School Freedom Fund PAC spent about $700,000 attacking Jody Barrett. The School Freedom Fund had just finished spending more than $3 million in order to line up a pro-school voucher system for Tennessee. To them, Jody Barrett was the enemy. He had opposed the voucher plan.
One analyst suggested that President Donald Trump’s late endorsement of Van Epps turned a close race into the majority vote for Van Epps. More likely, as he has often done, Trump endorsed the probable winner, adding to the list of winning candidates he has endorsed.
Matt Van Epps is a West Point graduate with an MBA from the University of North Carolina. He was a helicopter pilot and served in the National Guard. Except for an internship with Senator Chuck Grassley, his political experience began in 2016 as an Assistant Commissioner in Tennessee’s Department of Veterans Affairs. By 2020, he was Governor Bill Lee’s Chief Operating Officer and in 2024 became the Commissioner of the state’s General Services Administration while also serving as the Brigade Deputy Commanding Officer of the Tennessee National Guard.
Aftyn Behn is a different kind of person. It is not that she shrinks from a fight; she surely does not. She is a graduate of the Webb School, a private day school in Knoxville. From there she went to the University of Texas – getting her BA and a Masters in Social Work. Her idea of social work turned out to be working as an organizer for lawyers. For a year, she worked for a group of defense lawyers called the Tennessee Justice Center. In 2018, she began leading a group called Enough is Enough. They targeted State Rep David Byrd who had been accused of sexually assaulting underage girls on the basketball team at the school where he had been a teacher and an administrator and a coach.
One time, attempting to move the process along from the gallery, Aftyn Behn was removed. Success with David Byrd was a long time coming. Just as he told the girls who accused him how sorry he was, he promised the House Speaker and the Governor he would not run for election again in 2020. And then he ran and won.
Covid did him in. He spent eight months in the hospital, 55 days on a ventilator. His situation was so dire his family planned his funeral. He recovered, recommended that people get vaccinated, and chose not to run for reelection in 2022.
Aftyn Behn continued lobbying the Tennessee legislature. She was among the leaders opposing the expulsion from the legislature of African American sate reps Justin Jones and Justin Pearson. They were expelled and reelected. The third threatened state rep, Gloria Johnson, was saved from expulsion by a single vote. She ran for the US Senate in 2024, losing to the incumbent, Marsha Blackburn, 63.8 to 34.2.
In 2023, Aftyn Behn won a special election for State Rep – gaining 53.5% of the primary vote and then 75.6% of the vote in the special election. She was an active legislator. She proposed repealing the state sales tax on groceries. She proposed legislation to codify the Equal Rights Amendment in Tennessee. She worked with conservative anti-voucher Republican Todd Warner to attempt to move allegations of workplace harassment and discrimination in the legislature from internal legislative oversight into the Attorney General’s office. With Nashville attorney Rachel Welty, she filed a federal First Amendment lawsuit to block a recently passed state criminal statute setting a mandatory one year in jail for a conviction of recruiting, harboring or transporting a pregnant child or teen within the state to get an abortion without consent from the minor’s parents or guardians.
If Aftyn Behn can run a disciplined campaign between now and December 2 that focuses on a demand for the Epstein files, reminding her constituents of her own challenge to a member of the legislature accused of pedophilia and on the demand for restoring funds for Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act to the federal budget , she can be in a position to win. DONATE. It is worth the gamble to attempt to win one more special election and to elect a Democrat to Congress from Tennessee.
NOVEMBER 4, 2025 ELECTIONS TO SUPPORT
There is time to donate and make a difference in these crucial elections.
California’s Proposition 50
Devised by Governor Gavin Newsom, Proposition 50, which has already passed the California House and Senate by two thirds majorities, is intended to offset Texas’s redistricting of Congressional seats in order to flip five Democratic seats. Proposition would temporarily redistrict California’s Congressional seats with the intention of flipping five Republican seats. DONATE to this effort which affects the entire country.
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Retention elections.
Support the three State Supreme Court Justices whose retention would continue the 5-2 Democratic majority on the Pennsylvania Supreme court: See Len’s Political Note #754
DONATE to Christine Donahue, who is from a labor background in the Scranton area
DONATE to Kevin Dougherty, who is from South Philadelphia and worked his way through Temple University
DONATE to David Wecht, who grew up in Baltimore, but fell in love with the Pittsburgh area where his grandfather had a grocery store.
For New Jersey Governor, Congresswoman Mikie Sherill. A former military helicopter pilot, she was a moderate Democratic vote in Congress, elected in 2024 by a comfortable 56 – 42 margin and won the 2025 Democratic primary for governor by 13 points. She is running against Republican State Rep Jack Ciattarelli. DONATE to Mikie Sherill’s campaign. Help her finish strong. See Len’s Political Nogte #732
For Virginia Governor former Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger.
A former member of the CIA, she was a moderate Democratic vote in Congress, elected in 2022 by a 52-48 margin, she declined to run in 2024 to focus on the 2025 gubernatorial election. She had no opposition in the Democratic primary. Her Republican opponent is Lt. Governor Winsome Earl-Spears. DONATE to the Abigail Spanberger campaign. Help her finish strong. See Len’s Political Note #705
For Virginia Lt. Governor Ghazala Hashmi. An academic who focused on improving college teaching, she had immigrated with her parents from India and grew up and went to school in Virginia. She ran for State Senator in response to Donald Trump’s first term as President and has been a leader on labor and economic issues. Her opponent is radio talk show host John Reid. Help Ghazala Hashmi become Virginia’s Lt. Governor. DONATE. See Len’s Political Note #735
For Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones. An attorney and former state rep, Jay Jones continues a family tradition as a leader of Virginia’s civil rights movement. Supported by former governor Ralph Northam, who Jones had supported when Northam was faced with a Black face scandal, Jay Jones is seeking to defeat Republican incumbent Jason Miyares. Because of some misstatements, Jay Jones is the most vulnerable of the statewide Democratic candidates in Virginia. DONATE See Len’s Political Note #734.
For Mayor of New York City. Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani. The child of international intellectuals, he describes himself as a Democratic Socialist, which appears to have frightened New York City property developers and some politicians around the country. Zohran Mamdani has demonstrated a real gift for making his candidacy into a movement and is leading his three opponents in the polls – former Governor Andrew Cuomo, anti-crime Republican and red beret leader Curtis Sliwa, and current New York City Mayor Eric Adams. DONATE to Zohran Mamdani’s campaign. Help him soundly defeat that trio. See Len’s Political Note #739 and Len’s Letter
