{"id":2170508,"date":"2025-11-21T15:14:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T15:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2170508"},"modified":"2025-11-21T15:14:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T15:14:11","slug":"tennessee-congressional-hopeful-aftyn-behn-says-she-hates-nashville-country-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/tennessee-congressional-hopeful-aftyn-behn-says-she-hates-nashville-country-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennessee congressional hopeful Aftyn Behn says she hates Nashville, country music"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft wp-block-nypost-editor-partner-article-links\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Democratic congressional\u00a0hopeful Aftyn Behn did not hold back when describing how she really feels about Nashville \u2014 the city she\u2019s now running to represent \u2014 in a 2020 podcast that\u2019s resurfaced just days before the Dec. 2 special election.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hate the city, I hate the bachelorettes, I hate the pedal taverns, I hate country music, I hate all of the things that make Nashville apparently an \u2018it\u2019 city to the rest of the country. But I hate it,\u201d she said in the podcast.<\/p>\n<p>Behn, a Democratic state representative and former healthcare community organizer, is running against Republican <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/10\/08\/us-news\/trump-backed-candidate-wins-crowded-gop-primary-in-battle-for-vacant-house-seat\/\">nominee Matt Van Epps<\/a> to represent Tennessee\u2019s 7th Congressional District.<\/p>\n<p>The winner will succeed former GOP Rep. Mark Green, who resigned from office in June to take a private sector job.<\/p>\n<p>The district, which is located in central and western Tennessee and stretches from Kentucky to Alabama, is solidly red.<\/p>\n<p>President\u00a0Donald Trump\u00a0carried the district by 22 points in his 2024 White House victory.<\/p>\n<p>But the district includes parts of the\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/nashville\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Democratic stronghold of Nashville,<\/a>\u00a0Tennessee\u2019s capital and its most populous city, and a major national center for the country music industry.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Tennessee Democratic Congressional nominee Aftyn Behn speaks in Dickson, Tenn., on Sept. 8, 2025. <span class=\"credit\">AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The district encompasses parts of north and west Nashville, including the downtown area which has long been a very popular tourist destination.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Democrat running in a special election for\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/us-regions\/southeast\/tennessee\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Tennessee\u2019s 7th Congressional District<\/a>, Aftyn Behn, is running on the message: \u2018I hate this place, elect me!\u2019 Tennessee deserves better,\u201d the Republican National Committee (RNC) argued in a social media post on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Republican groups are pouring plenty of resources into the special election to avoid the possibility of a major upset and protect the GOP\u2019s current razor-thin 219-214 majority in the House.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Behn, a Democratic state representative and former healthcare community organizer, is running to represent Tennessee\u2019s 7th Congressional District. <span class=\"credit\">Aftyn for Congress \/ Facebook<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Behn stands next to supporters holding signs for her congressional campaign. <span class=\"credit\">Aftyn for Congress \/ Facebook<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Democrats, energized after their sweeping victories earlier this month in the 2025 elections, are optimistic about their chances in the special election. Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Ken Martin, who campaigned with Behn recently, argued that she has \u201can excellent shot to win.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Behn is considered by many Democrats as a rising progressive star who some have dubbed the \u201cAOC of Tennessee.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Republicans are also taking aim at Behn over an op-ed titled \u201cTennessee is a racist state, and so is its legislature,\u201d that appeared in a 2019 edition of The Tennessean newspaper.<\/p>\n<p>The RNC, pointing in a social media post Wednesday to the six-year-old opinion piece, asked, \u201cIf Behn hates Tennessee so much, why is she trying to represent it?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kate Briefs, campaign manager for Aftyn Behn for Congress, told Fox News Digital in a statement, \u201cRepublicans are panicking and in a last ditched attempt, they are distracting from the fact that Washington Republicans and Matt Van Epps are raising costs on Tennessee families and ripping away their health care while Aftyn Behn will lower Tennessee families\u2019 costs and make groceries more affordable by eliminating the state\u2019s grocery tax.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Van Epps, the former commissioner of the Tennessee Department of General Services, was endorsed by Trump, which boosted him to primary victory last month in an 11-candidate race for the Republican congressional nomination.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, Trump hosted a tele-rally for Van Epps in which he claimed Behn was a \u201cMarxist\u201d and linked her to\u00a0Zohran Mamdani, the <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/11\/20\/us-news\/zohran-mamdani-dodges-questions-over-policing-rifts-with-nypd-commish-jessica-tisch\/\">socialist mayor-elect of New York City,<\/a> whom\u00a0Republicans are aiming to make the new face of the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Aftyn Behn with Minor League Baseball team Nashville Sounds mascot Booster the Rooster. <span class=\"credit\">Aftyn for Congress \/ Facebook<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Behn is considered by many Democrats as a rising progressive star who some have dubbed the \u201cAOC of Tennessee.\u201d <span class=\"credit\">Aftyn for Congress \/ Facebook<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Van Epps campaign is asking the president to campaign in person in the district ahead of the special election.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Republican-aligned outside groups are spending big bucks to run ads targeting Behn.<\/p>\n<p>As\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/scoop-trump-aligned-maga-inc-jumps-high-stakes-ballot-box-congressional-showdown\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Fox News Digital first reported<\/a>\u00a0this week, the Trump-aligned super PAC MAGA Inc. launched spots backed by a seven-figure buy.<\/p>\n<p>A Democratic strategist familiar with the race touted that \u201cthis is already a win. The fact that Republicans have spent over $2 million trying to hold a seat that Trump won by 22 points.<\/p>\n<p>Whether or not Aftyn Behn wins, overperforms, or loses, this is a win for us because Republicans know just how in trouble they are when they have to fight tooth and nail for a seat like this.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source celebrity.land \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democratic congressional\u00a0hopeful Aftyn Behn did not hold back when describing how she really feels about Nashville \u2014 the city she\u2019s now running to represent \u2014 in a 2020 podcast that\u2019s resurfaced just days before the Dec. 2 special election. \u201cI hate the city, I hate the bachelorettes, I hate the pedal taverns, I hate country [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2170509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[352976,22846,347196,345563,23510,22048,23502,37798],"class_list":["post-2170508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-congress","tag-country-music","tag-democrats","tag-elections","tag-nashville","tag-politics","tag-tennessee","tag-us-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Tennessee-congressional-hopeful-Aftyn-Behn-says-she-hates-Nashville-country.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2170508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2170508"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2170508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2170510,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2170508\/revisions\/2170510"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2170509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2170508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2170508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2170508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}