Van Epps Ad ‘Wins’ Targets Behn’s Activist Past Amid Her Messaging Pivot

NASHVILLE — Republican nominee Matt Van Epps has released a new campaign advertisement titled “Wins,” directly attacking Democratic opponent Aftyn Behn by casting her as a “woke liberal” whose activist past stands at odds with her current general-election message of economic populism.

The 30-second ad opens with Van Epps saying, “I’m Matt Van Epps, and I approved this message,” followed by narration declaring, “Meet woke liberal Aftyn Behn.” The spot then plays a clip Behn posted to her social media in which she says, “We’ve got our girl squad and we’re bullying the ICE vehicles and state troopers … this is a win.” The ad repeats the line twice before closing with the tagline, “Woke liberal Aftyn Behn — when she wins, we lose.”

By using Behn’s own words, the Van Epps campaign aims to remind voters of the combative style that helped define her early political image. The choice of footage positions Behn within the broader culture-war frame that Republicans have long used to mobilize conservative voters, especially in Tennessee’s right-leaning 7th Congressional District.

The ad’s release follows Behn’s recent appearance on WTVF’s Inside Politics, where she worked to recast herself as a pragmatic economic populist rather than an ideological progressive. “It’s not left versus right right now,” Behn told host Ben Hall. “It’s top versus bottom.” She described her campaign as centered on affordability, wages, and healthcare, saying she’s running “to make life affordable for Tennesseans and to reverse the cuts from the big, ugly bill.”

That message marks a shift from the fiery activist persona Behn displayed in previous years and now emphasizes a disciplined focus on cost-of-living issues. On Inside Politics, she also acknowledged the likelihood that Republicans would highlight past confrontations with law enforcement, including the same video used in the new Van Epps ad. At the time, she dismissed those attacks as “a distraction from the fact that Washington Republicans have not delivered results to lower costs for working families.”

Van Epps’ team appears intent on making that “distraction” central to the race. By contrasting his measured, military-veteran image with Behn’s earlier activism, the ad seeks to reinforce ideological differences and question her authenticity as a centrist voice.

Strategically, “Wins” functions less as a policy argument than as a reminder — an attempt to define Behn in the minds of voters who may only now be learning about her. It portrays her as emblematic of national progressive politics rather than the local economic advocate she presents in interviews.

Whether the message succeeds in undermining Behn’s affordability-first rebrand or merely reenergizes her base of grassroots supporters remains uncertain, but it makes clear that Van Epps intends to keep Behn’s progressive record at the center of the campaign narrative.