Aftyn Behn has spent much of her campaign arguing that Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District race is tied to one of Washington’s most watched transparency fights — the effort to release sealed Justice Department materials related to Jeffrey Epstein.
In an October 13 video titled “A Vote for Me Is a Vote to Release the Epstein Files,” Behn told supporters, “The Epstein files — yes, we’re going there.” She claimed House Republicans, including Speaker Mike Johnson, were delaying the swearing-in of Democrat Adelita Grijalva of Arizona to block a vote on the documents. Behn said Tennessee election officials were “rushing certification” of the Dec. 2 special election and argued that whoever won could “literally determine whether the vote happens.” Her closing line became a campaign refrain: “If I’m elected, I will vote to release the Epstein files, full stop, period… A vote for me is a vote to release the Epstein files.”
That narrative unraveled on Wednesday.
Grijalva was sworn into the U.S. House in the afternoon, providing the decisive 218th signature on a discharge petition to force the vote Behn had spent weeks describing as stalled. Within hours, Speaker Mike Johnson announced the House will take up the measure next week.
Further undercutting Behn’s argument, multiple outlets reported Wednesday that Republicans are preparing to back the measure in large numbers once it reaches the floor. Politico said senior GOP lawmakers expect “dozens of Republicans” — possibly more than 100 — to vote for the Epstein file disclosure bill sponsored by Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky. Several Republicans, including Reps. Don Bacon of Nebraska, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, and Rob Bresnahan of Pennsylvania, said publicly they intend to support it.
Behn responded in a new video posted Wednesday night from her vehicle. In it, she repeated that “a vote for me is a vote to release the Epstein files,” but warned that “the Trump administration is working overtime to lobby Republican congressmen and congresswomen, such as Lauren Boebert, to remove their names from the discharge petition.”
At virtually the same time, The Hill confirmed that Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., said she supports the petition and will vote to advance it — directly contradicting Behn’s suggestion that Boebert might withdraw.
By the end of the night, the storyline that Behn had built into a campaign centerpiece had moved beyond her control: the petition had reached 218 signatures, a floor vote was scheduled, and Boebert — the Republican she had singled out by name — publicly reaffirmed her support.
For a candidate who spent weeks tying her campaign’s purpose to the release of the Epstein files, Wednesday’s developments effectively pulled that issue out from under her. What had been a defining message — that her election could determine whether the documents were made public — no longer holds true. The bill is moving forward without her, and the new video feels less like a rallying cry than an attempt to keep an exhausted narrative alive. For Behn, it was the rare kind of political moment that undercuts not just a talking point, but the very premise of her campaign.
— Brandon Windsor is the Editor & Publisher of TNPOLITICO.
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