Photo: Alamy
President Donald Trump issued his endorsement to Republican Matt Van Epps ahead of Tuesday’s special congressional election in Tennessee’s seventh district.
“I am asking all America First Patriots in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District, who haven’t voted yet, to please GET OUT AND VOTE on Election Day, Tuesday, December 2nd, for a phenomenal Candidate, Matt Van Epps,” the president wrote Sunday in a post to Truth Social.
Van Epps, a combat veteran and former commissioner of Tennessee’s Department of General Services, is seeking to win the seat held by former Rep. Mark Green, who resigned from office earlier in July to take a job in the private sector.
In his endorsement, President Trump slammed Van Epps’ Democrat challenger, state Rep. Aftyn Behn, calling her a “woman who hates Christianity” who would also “take away your guns, wants Open Borders, Transgender for everybody, men in women’s sports, and openly disdains Country music.”
“She said all of these things precisely, and without question — IT’S ON TAPE! Do not take this Race for granted,” he wrote.
The president’s criticisms come amid a recently resurfaced 2020 podcast in which Behn said of Nashville: “I 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 ‘it’ city to the rest of the country. But I hate it.”
The district for which she is seeking office encompasses Nashville and its surrounding areas.
She also called Tennessee a “racist state” in a 2019 op-ed for The Tennessean, and wrote to X during the summer of 2020 riots that she wanted the Nashville police department dissolved, and celebrated the “54 percent of Americans that believe burning down a police station is justified,” The New York Post reported.
Another audio clip posted to X by RNC Research purportedly showed Behn saying that she felt “uncomfortable” watching her colleagues in the Tennessee legislature pray.
“The Radical Left Democrats are spending a fortune to beat one of the best Candidates we’ve ever had, Matt Van Epps! You can win this Election for Matt. GET OUT AND VOTE FOR MATT VAN EPPS, who has my Complete and Total Endorsement — HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!” the president concluded in his endorsement.
Although a deeply Republican district, polling has indicated that the special election could be a close matchup, with Van Epps only running ahead of Behn by two points.
According to the latest survey by TheHill/Emerson, Van Epps led Behn with 49 percent support to 47 percent.
If Van Epps wins, his victory will give House Republicans another seat in the lower chamber, bringing their total to 220, while the Democrats’ total remains 213, with two other seats still vacant.
Tennessee voters in the state’s seventh congressional district will head to the polls on Tuesday, Dec. 2. Early voting previously took place from Nov. 12 to Nov. 26.