President Donald Trump is speaking to Tennessee voters in the language they know best: country music.
Trump launched an attack at Democratic State Rep. Aftyn Behn, who is neck-and-neck against Republican Matt Van Epps in the closely-watched race to fill a vacant congressional seat in Tennessee’s seventh district, over her “open disdain” of country music.
The president, 79, issued a “complete and total endorsement” of Van Epps in the Tuesday election as he hurled a laundry list of attacks at the Democratic candidate.
“Matt is fighting against a woman who hates Christianity, will take away your guns, wants Open Borders, Transgender for everybody, men in women’s sports, and openly disdains Country music,” he wrote in a Truth Social post on Sunday. “She said all of these things precisely, and without question — IT’S ON TAPE! Do not take this Race for granted.”
“HE WILL BE A GREAT CONGRESSMAN and, unlike his Opponent, he cherishes Christianity and Country Music — She hates them both!” he added in a second post.
As polls show that Van Epps, 42, is leading Behn, 36, by a measly two points in the deep-red state, Republicans have zeroed in on comments the Democrat made in a 2020 episode of the podcast Year Old GRITS.
“I’ve been heavily involved with the Nashville mayoral race because I hate this city, I hate the bachelorettes, I hate the pedal taverns, I hate country music,” she said at the time. “I hate all of the things that make Nashville apparently an ‘It City’ to the rest of the country. But I hate it. I’m that girl at the airport that [while] all these bachelorettes are giddy and walking out in their two-tone colored Pantone pink shirts, and they walk out, and I’m like, ‘Ugh.’”
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. Vote early or on Dec 2 for @MattForTN! https://t.co/vwVex2MUyG— GOP (@GOP) November 20, 2025
Behn brushed off the resurfaced comments in a Sunday interview with CNN’s Inside Politics.
“I was a private citizen. Nashville is my home,” she said. “Do I roll my eyes at the bachelorette parties and the pedal taverns that are blocking my access to my house? Yeah, every Nashvillian does, but this race has always been about something bigger: it’s about families across Middle Tennessee that are getting crushed by rising prices while Washington politicians and billionaires argue about this type of nonsense. “
The Democratic nominee, who bills herself as a “p—ed off social worker” standing up against a MAGA-loving combat veteran, also addressed claims that she hates country music despite hailing from its birthplace.
“You’re talking to someone who has cried no less than 10 times in the Country Music Hall of Fame, the girl that just goes to the Ryman [Auditorium] to hang out,” she said in a video posted to social media. “We’re not even gonna go there. We are so close to winning this race, which is why these rumors are getting more wild. So I can’t wait to see what they come up with next.”
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