A Democratic Party candidate in a closely watched U.S. House of Representatives special election is under fire following the emergence of resurfaced podcast episode in which she claims she “hates” Nashville, the city she is running to represent.
Tennessee State Rep. Aftyn Behn is running in the state’s Seventh Congressional District after former Republican Rep. Mark Green retired following the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill this past July. The district currently holds a partisan lean of R+10 according to the Cook Partisan Voting Index, though the Republican National Committee is flooding the race with resources following impressive Democrat turnout in recent elections in Virginia and New Jersey.
Behn’s campaign is now scrambling to react after the emergence of the podcast audio just days ahead of the December 2 special election.
“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,” Behn said in the podcast episode in 2020.
Behn is running to replace retired U.S. Rep. Mark Green
While President Trump carried the district by 22 points last November, its boundaries do include parts of the Democratic Party stronghold of Nashville, Tennessee’s capital and the state’s most populous city. Nashville is also a popular destination for tourists from across the country due to its history of culture and status as the home of country music.
The seventh congressional district encompasses parts of north and west Nashville, including the downtown area which has long been a very popular tourist destination.
Republican candidate Matt Van Epps and the national party apparatus have seized on Behn’s comments as Election Day approaches. “The Democrat running in a special election for Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District, Aftyn Behn, is running on the message: ‘I hate this place, elect me!’ Tennessee deserves better,” the RNC wrote in a social media post on Thursday.
Aftyn Behn– the Democrat nominee for the upcoming TN07 special election– says that she despises Nashville, the city that she's running to represent in Congress:
“I hate the city, I hate the bachelorettes, I hate the pedal taverns, I hate country music, I hate all of the… pic.twitter.com/L9lmo1YkkJ
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) November 19, 2025
Behn, a progressive candidate, narrowly defeated more establishment candidates like former State Rep. Bo Mitchell and political outsider Darden Copeland, both of whom received more than 20 percent of the vote in last month’s special election primary.
Republicans have poured significant resources into the race despite its favorable partisan lean. Notable expenditures include over $1.3 million from billionaire Jeff Yass, more than $600,000 from the Ken Griffin-backed Conservatives for American Excellence, $453,000 from the School Freedom Fund, seven figures from Trump’s MAGA Inc. super PAC.
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