Aftyn Behn
"As the South goes, so goes the nation"
Last week, Emerson College dropped a shocking poll showing a two-point gap between Matt Van Epps, the Republican nominee for the Tennessee Seventh District Special Election, and Democrat Aftyn Behn. In a district that the Republicans shouldn’t even blink twice about, they are now dumping millions of dollars to hold on to. If Behn ends up winning, as she has a real chance to, it’ll be because she has embraced the populist economic principles that the Democrats have shied away from and that the Republicans have falsely promised.
After Zohran Mamdani’s win, you can expect other Democrats to try and fail to replicate his success across the country. Expect headlines that read “the Mamdani of X”, “the Mamdani of LA”, “the Mamdani of Gary, Indiana”. However, Behn’s campaign has effectively and genuinely conveyed the very same platform that Mamdani, AOC, and Bernie have in their own way. And I speculate that voters are keen on discerning those who genuinely practice what they preach from those who are prioritizing corporate donors, solely adapting to polls, and adjusting their talking points (see: the Biden & Harris campaigns pivoting to strong anti-immigration policies and other historically Republican strong points). Concrete affordability and healthcare politics are king, and voters seem to be souring on MAGA’s/the GOP’s take on it.
Behn is in the red zone, and it’s her game to lose. The fact that her campaign can overcome the 22-point deficit that Kamala Harris lost to Donald Trump in 2024 is already a win. It was Walter Benjamin who argued that the mechanical reproduction of an art piece can never convey the same “aura” as the original artwork. In a sense, Van Epps seems to be a vacuous reproduction of Donald Trump: no aura, just a talking head and plug-and-play move, not dissimilar to Harris of Biden. Behn offers the alternative that voters have been desperately seeking ever since the end of the W. Bush Administration. And as Behn quoted on her campaign trail, “As the South goes, so goes the nation.” (- W.E.B. Du Bois.)
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// Sources
https://emersoncollegepolling.com/tennessee-7th-district-2025-special-election-poll/
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/trump-super-pac-jumps-deep-red-tennessee-special-election-rcna243992