Tom Pappert, the lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, is warning that Democrats have parachuted an “activist” army into Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District to bolster Democratic nominee Aftyn Behn’s special election bid.
On Monday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Pappert explained how the DNC’s national organizing network has quietly flooded the 7th District with out-of-state volunteers capable of contacting tens of thousands of voters in the race’s final days leading up to the December 2 election.
Pappert said he believes the Democratic Party coordinated its deployment of trained volunteers in anticipation that Behn would soon face negative national media coverage over resurfaced controversial statements she made in recent years, which transpired last week into the weekend.
“Aftyn Behn knew she was going to have these past statements haunt her. I think that she knew she was going to have some rough interviews on cable news…So the Democratic National Committee was seemingly briefed on all this because a week before these negative headlines started coming out…Behn began benefiting from a massive national Democratic party effort. They send in volunteers from across the country and mobilize them in critical districts like Tennessee’s 7th,” Pappert explained.
Pappert pointed out that while Behn may seem out of the race, given the heavy media criticism she has absorbed, particularly after her MS Now interview in which she dodged questions about her past remarks about police, these controversies may not reach the voters Democrats are targeting door-to-door.
He said many of those voters are unlikely to watch cable news or follow political content on social media, potentially insulating Behn from the ongoing fallout of national coverage.
“In the media, on social media especially, Aftyn Behn is seemingly without a hope. She’s no longer even attempting to explain away her past comments. She’s just saying, ‘Don’t believe you’re lying ears.’ But meanwhile, there’s Democrats in the district knocking on doors of people who may not watch television, who may not be on X.com, and they’re filling their heads with, in my opinion, lies, like, Aftyn Behn can win this thing,” Pappert explained.
“Aftyn Behn seems to be winning the door-knocking fight…We might be in for a surprise when it comes to the ground game difference between the Democrats, who, again, are putting their entire party infrastructure behind this,” he added.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Aftyn Behn” by Aftyn for Congress.
