Aftyn Behn stood up for survivors. The right is smearing her for it.
A progressive Democrat on the cusp of causing a massive political upset in Tennessee next week has the GOP scared and desperate.
Everyone shits on the South because of the politicians we elect, and that is—for the most part—a valid criticism. But BY GOD are we trying to change that!
The nation’s eyes will be on Middle Tennessee this Tuesday as one of the most consequential elections of the year is decided. A special election that should, on paper, be an easy win for Republicans has quickly become competitive.
Some background on how we got here!
TNGOP supermajority drew this district to be a slam dunk for them. It was NEVER supposed to be competitive.
Real Tennessee politics ball-knowers will recall Nashville used to be represented by a Democrat as recently as 2022, but the TNGOP supermajority redrew the congressional district maps in 2022.
The result was this:
Nashville, which was entirely included in District 5, was split across three districts: 5, 7, and 6.
TN-05 immediately shifted +15 in favor of Republicans, from a D+7 to a GOP +8, thereby eliminating a Democrat-held seat
TN-07 became a GOP +10 district, and TN-06 became a GOP +16 district
The TNGOP was successful in one of their favorite pastimes, picking their voters (second only to passing bigoted legislation that deprives people of rights and basic human dignities).
Mark “mysterious business deal in Guyana” Green resigns, triggering a special election.
TN-07 was represented by former state senator Mark Green from 2019 until July 2025. Mark Green apparently decided he wanted more green when he announced he would be resigning after voting for the Big Bullshit Bill earlier this year. Mark apparently had an affair with a younger woman and was pitching lobbyists on oil investment opportunities in South America.
From what I can tell, he rage-quit the U.S. House and has quite literally fucked off to Guyana.
This, of course, triggered a special election in the district in a year when Republicans aren’t exactly the most popular across the country. Turns out, turbo-fucking the economy by way of insane across-the-board tariffs, authoritarian mobilizations of the military, and throwing all your chips into the “employing masked agents of the state to rip families apart” bucket isn’t widely popular politics. Go figure.
I won’t get into what happened in the Democratic primary, because that isn’t pertinent currently, but Rep. Aftyn Behn—a state legislator from Nashville—emerged victorious.
I was extremely excited about this result. I had briefly worked with Aftyn while she was a campaign director at RuralOrganizing.org and knew her to be an incredibly talented organizer with strong progressive bonafides. Her even making this race competitive is a testament to the FACT that you don’t have to be a corporatist democrat and “centrist” to run successfully in tough districts.
The race is currently in a dead heat. Aftyn Behn is polling within the margin of error of her corporate stooge opponent, and the GOP is SCARED.
They sent JD Vance to Fort Campbell to campaign for the GOP nominee, and Donald Trump’s campaign arm desperately scrambled to push out GOTV text messages. They clearly see this as a tight race and are worried about the message it would send if a Democrat won in a district Trump won easily.1
So, let’s get into what the right is trying to do to her.
The smear campaign against Rep. Aftyn Behn
The GOP is pushing a 2019 video of Aftyn Behn2 being dragged out of Governor Bill Lee’s office by law enforcement. In the video she can be heard screaming. They’re presenting this, devoid of context of course, to try to smear Aftyn as a radical leftist who is “hysterical.”3
The video actually shows how much of a fighter Aftyn Behn really is, though, because she put her body on the line to support the victims of sexual violence.
Let’s discuss the context that Republicans conveniently decided to avoid!
Aftyn went after a credibly accused predator in the legislature, and the TNGOP protected him.
Rep. David Byrd represented a rural state house district in Middle Tennessee for over a decade. In 2017, three women came forward and accused Rep. Byrd of sexual misconduct while he was their high school basketball coach. And while I don’t believe these accusations were ever criminally or civilly pursued to a resolution in the courts, the evidence against Byrd was extremely compelling. Byrd denied the allegations. However, there is an audio recording of him apologizing to one of the alleged victims for something unspecified, but the context is extremely damning.
Aftyn Behn was a member of TN Enough is Enough at the time, a group calling for Rep. David Byrd to step down. During one of the final meetings of the legislature in 2019, she started shouting at Speaker Glen Casada from the gallery in the House chambers.
State troopers removed her from the gallery at the time. On a separate occasion, she was drug out of Governor Bill Lee’s office during a sit-in, where she was demanding that the governor support their calls for Byrd’s resignation/expulsion.
The governor and the vast majority4 of the TNGOP refused to push Byrd’s resignation, preferring instead to ignore the allegations and allow him to continue serving in the state legislature. The only thing they did was ask Byrd to step down from his chairmanship of a subcommittee—a pathetic way to say they “did something.”
The GOP smear campaign actually shows how much of a fighter Aftyn Behn is and will be
This attempt to paint Aftyn as an unserious disruptor is, of course, absurd. But the context clearly shows she is someone who is willing to fight, willing to put her body on the line in service of others, and willing to stand up for marginalized voices in an extremely hostile environment.
Right now, the Democratic Party DESPERATELY needs someone who is willing to fight. And ACTUALLY fight, not performative bullshit. Aftyn is that person. She is a “pissed off social worker” who is showing the country that the South is not a red monolith. I think she can actually win this thing on Tuesday, and I am doing as much as I can to help carry her to victory. I hope everyone reading this will too. If you’re in the 7th district, GO VOTE ON DECEMBER 2nd. If you’re not, phone bank!
The politics of the South will change. Progressives face massive institutional obstacles to gaining power, but Aftyn making this a close race is proof that better elected representation is possible.
Thank you for reading.
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No Elegy Needed is an opinion column Substack. All views expressed are solely the opinions of the author and in no way are to be interpreted as anything besides that. I am not a journalist, I am not a reporter, nor do I claim to be one. This is an expression of opinion for entertainment purposes only.
Scheduling a special election the Tuesday after Thanksgiving isn’t exactly the best way to garner high turnout (to be clear, that is by design!)
Then a private citizen, not yet elected to the state legislature
Wouldn’t be a Republican smear campaign without a little misogyny, I guess.
Former Speaker of the House Beth Harwell was one of the few Republicans at the time to call for his resignation.
Hey, why not help her with some last minute funding? I did! Here's a link: https://linktr.ee/aftyn4tn
Your right blows- 😂🤯
THIS woman is GOOD and I wish her all the best! ❤️🇨🇦❤️