Aftyn Behn, Image via MS NOW / Screengrab
Tennessee State Rep. Aftyn Behn on Tuesday hit back against President Donald Trump's attacks on her and her campaign to fill a House seat in a key special election, suggesting that she was "living rent-free in the president's mind" and ripping him for "beefing with a 5-foot-4 blonde."
Behn is the Democratic nominee in the race to fill the vacant House seat for Tennessee's 7th congressional district. The seat has been empty since the summer, when former Rep. Mark Green resigned to accept a job in the private sector. Republican nominee Matt Van Epps had been widely tipped to carry the special election easily, but the recent overperformance of Democratic candidates gave the party hope that they could at least make the race close enough to send a message about voter anger to the GOP. Trump carried the district by 22 points over Kamala Harris in 2024.
In the last week, a reputable Emerson College poll of likely voters in the district put Behn only two points behind Van Epps, with a four-point margin of error. Facing down the prospect of a tight race or a surprise Democratic victory, Republican leaders have mobilized to the state to campaign for their candidates, an unheard of move for a jurisdiction seen as ruby red politically. Even Trump himself has weighed in, attacking Behn as "anti-Christian" and "anti-country music" in various last-minute public statements.
On Tuesday morning, Behn shared a video to her social media accounts, reminding supporters to vote, while also taking a moment to hit back at Trump's attacks against her.
"I know I've been living rent-free in the president's mind the last few days," Behn said. "And I'll just say, sir, you are the leader of the free world and you are beefing with a 5-foot-4 blonde who had a 'Hot Girls Hit Curbs' bumper sticker on her car? Come on."
Behn then segued into an attack on her opponent's lack of meaningful policies to address the affordability crisis, the key issue that has driven her campaign and those of other recently elected Democrats like Zohran Mamdani and Abigail Spanberger.
"Guys, the reason they're coming after me so hard is because they don't have a plan to address the rising cost of healthcare and the rising cost of groceries," Behn continued. "And you know what, such is life. We've built a cavalry, we've got all the momentum on our side, we just need folks to show up."
Behn took another hit at Van Epps over his priorities on the morning of the election, claiming he was "behind the big pearly gates of a Williamson County mega-mansion" taking a meeting with the "puppet masters and power brokers of the universe," while she claimed to be out talking to "actual people" and handing out flyers.