Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District has special election on Oct. 7
Primary winners will face off in the general election Dec. 2. Results could shift the balance of the state’s congressional delegation, as Democrats seek to gain ground in a district spanning parts of Middle and West Tennessee.
- Republican Matt Van Epps and Democrat Aftyn Behn are competing in a special election for Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District.
- The candidates have not participated in any debates, instead focusing on individual campaign events and social media attacks.
- Key campaign issues include the cost of living, health insurance costs, and immigration enforcement.
With early voting set to begin Nov. 12 in Tennessee’s 7th District special Congressional election, Republican Matt Van Epps and Democrat Aftyn Behn have traded jabs, but haven’t met face-to-face.
Both candidates have scheduled individual campaign events, yet no public debates or forums are planned before voting kicks off.
Five weeks ahead of Election Day, internal polling released by Behn’s campaign showed the contest within Behn’s reach, but barely. A poll of 400 likely voters and weighted with Democrats to reflect a likely special electorate anticipated Van Epps leading with 52% of the vote. Behn took 44%, and 4% of poll respondents were undecided. That’s a steep hill to climb for Behn, who seeks to flip the district.
How many voters will turn out for Tennessee District 7’s Dec. 2 election?
Turnout will remain key, as with any special election. Analysis conducted by Impact Research obtained by The Tennessean found that Democrats are more motivated than Republicans to vote in the Dec. 2 election. If turnout trends closer to other recent special elections than it does to the primary, Impact analysts determined that the race is within the margin of error.
Among extremely motivated voters, the poll found it’s a tossup: a 49%-49% split among voters who described their motivation to vote as “10 out of 10.” The poll was conducted by Workbench Strategy from Oct. 15-19, and has a margin of error of 5.65 percentage points.
Since winning the Oct. 7 primary, Van Epps has skipped public forums, and mostly avoided interacting with members of the media. The Van Epps campaign has not responded to multiple requests for interviews from The Tennessean. Instead, he’s focused energy on hosting fundraisers, and taking a trip to the White House. U.S. Reps. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pa., and Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., hosted a fundraiser for Van Epps at Puckett’s on 5th Avenue last week.
Meanwhile, Behn has led organizing, canvassing and phone banking efforts across the district. She said her goal is to energize voters and local Democratic Party chapters that have struggled to recruit through her campaign.
On Nov. 1, she started the morning in the parking lot of Walnut Street Church of Christ in Dickson, with a group of volunteers from the Dickson County Democratic Party. Many had never knocked on doors like this before, so Behn gave a quick crash course in using a canvassing app and recording voter feedback.
“The goal is to pull people back into your infrastructure, right? Because we want people to feel less isolated,” she told the group. “You know, the campaign is ephemeral, but we want you all, you all are going to be in it for the long haul.”
Meanwhile, on social media, Van Epps’ campaign took a swing at Behn. The campaign posted a photo of Behn on Broadway in Nashville holding a sign that reads “Need an abortion? We’re here to help.”
“No, this isn’t @aftynfotn dressed up for Halloween. She’s just this scary — and radical — every day,” the post read.
A billboard attacking Van Epps has appeared on Interstate 40, portraying a black-and-white photo of Van Epps on a red background.
“A vote for Matt Van Epps = health insurance costs DOUBLE,” the billboard reads. “Vote no on Van Epps Dec. 2.”
Costs of living and costs of health insurance and dysfunction in the Republican-controlled federal government have been key campaign themes as Congressional Democrats are fighting to expand marketplace health insurance tax credits.
The billboard is paid for by the Turn Left PAC, a political nonprofit that works to “expose corporate corruption and counter right-wing propaganda.”
Van Epps released a new ad that features cell phone footage Behn posted of herself on social media during immigration enforcement raids in Nashville this summer.
In the selfie-style video, Behn said, “This is great… we’ve got our girl squad and we’re bullying ICE vehicles and state troopers… so this is like… this is a win.” Behn’s clip plays twice in the ad.
The video is a short clip of a livestream Behn shared a late-night video in May while observing and videoing ICE operations in her state House district in Nashville, an activity protected by the First Amendment. She started streaming shortly after being “boxed in” by two ICE vehicles and a state trooper, lights flashing. When she pulled over, she said the trooper falsely accused her of running a red light and demanded to see her identification.
“Meet woke liberal, Aftyn Behn,” the announcer says as those words appear in white text on the screen. “Aftyn Behn… So woke… She thinks it’s a win… to harass police.”
Vivian Jones covers state politics and government for The Tennessean. Reach her at vjones@tennessean.com.
