Socialist Democrat competitive in Tennessee Trump district special election

Things appear to be tightening in the congressional special election between GOP candidate Matt Van Epps and Democrat Aftyn Behn, known as Tennessee’s AOC, in a Congressional district that voted overwhelmingly for President Donald Trump.

The strange thing is not that the race is controversial, that special elections are always strange and unpredictable birds; rather that Behn is a far-left socialist in a part of the country where conventional wisdom says a socialist shouldn’t stand a chance.

So why is this happening, and is it a warning sign for Republicans who believe they can outshine the midterm elections by running against socialism and making New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani Mamdani the face of the Democrats?

Behn is the poster child for the wacky left. To this day, she supports defunding the police and has argued that American women should refuse to have children unless their demands are met by the government. Not only that, but an old interview has also surfaced in which he said he hates Nashville, his district’s largest city.

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On Tuesday afternoon, I heard local resident Clay Travis talk on his radio show, paralyzed about the support Behn had received. But is it really that strange?

I’ve spent most of the last two years traveling around America. One of the rarest breeds of people I encounter on the road are the moderates we used to call Blue Dog Democrats. The people I occasionally meet are usually over 60 years old.

Tennessee state representative Aftyn Behn, a Democratic congressional candidate, is running in the Dec. 2 special election for the vacant U.S. House seat. (Aftyn for Congress)

The Democrats I’ve encountered generally don’t fear socialism; they tend to like it, as a recent Gallup poll found. It turns out that 66 percent of Democrats have a positive view of socialism, and that number will only increase as the older, more conservative segment ages.

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There are plenty of white liberal arts graduates in their 20s and 30s out there who think they’re part of the intellectual upper class, but have $200,000 in student loan debt and can’t even dream of buying a home. They are not wrong to think that the system is rigged against them, they are wrong to think that only socialism can save them.

There is also a concentrated and generally successful effort by Democrats to woo female voters; Especially with seemingly empathetic policies like cashless bail, sweet and caring hooligans seem to be pampered even if it means they continue to commit more crimes.

Another argument that fails, especially among younger Democrats, is “where has socialism ever worked?” is the question. I recently asked two guys in Texas the same question, the first one said “Sweden” and then the other said “Denmark, Finland…”

I often hear young Americans call their vision of socialism not the breadlines of Cuba or the former Soviet Union, but the free health care and generous holiday allowances of Scandinavia.

Finally, the continued polarization in our congressional districts has made red districts redder and blue districts bluer, creating the richest target environment socialists have ever had in America.

What Republicans need to understand now is that socialism as a concept is not as disqualifying as it once was or still believes it is. If this realization is not realized, it will be a difficult midterm for the GOP.

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This moment feels a lot like 2016, when Republican voters beat Democrats’ ass for choosing the supposedly unelectable Donald Trump as their candidate. We all know how this turned out.

What’s important next year is to ensure that, as the fruits of the Big Beautiful Act come to life, Republicans put forth ideas that could roll back the affordability issue that Democrats have hijacked, fairly or not, highlighting benefits like no overtime and tip taxes.

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Behn does not need to win next week’s special election to strengthen the socialist wing of the Democratic Party. Even if it stays in single digits, the far left will use it as a cudgel to insist that socialism can thrive in a fly-away country. And they might not be wrong.

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The political battle of the next decade in America looks set to be between socialists on the left and whatever Trumpian populism emerges in the president’s wake; This includes some policies, such as the government buying shares in private businesses that traditional Republicans view as socialist.

The important thing to realize now is that Democrats electing socialists is no longer a shock or an anomaly. It’s actually more shocking that they don’t these days, and it’s not just in New York and San Francisco anymore. Don’t expect this to change anytime soon.

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