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Dem House hopeful exposed as far-left activist pushing to abolish police weeks before special election
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FIRST ON FOX: The Democratic Party’s candidate seeking to win a House seat in Tennessee’s upcoming special election has a lengthy record of anti-police rhetoric, which she espoused repeatedly on a now-deleted social media account and in interviews prior to becoming a state legislator in 2023.
Aftyn Behn, who is running against Republican Matt Van Epps in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District special election, also worked as a regional organizing director for the nonprofit activist group Indivisible prior to becoming a state legislator. The radical left-wing entity was also a frequent advocate for stripping funding from police departments, calling it «critical,» during the height of the defund movement.
«Where’s the proposal that dissolves @MNPDNashville,» Behn questioned on an old social media account, which has since been deleted, in response to a separate social media post from a Nashville City Council member indicating local officials had submitted a «substitute budget proposal» aiming to strip Nashville police of $2.6 million in funding. «If it’s been difficult for all of you to imagine a world without police … we can do it and there is a world,» Behn subsequently said during an interview with a local Nashville advocacy group.
Behn’s comments largely came during the height of the «defund the police» movement in 2020 and 2021 following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis. Amid violent protests that often devolved into dangerous rioting and looting following Floyd’s death, Behn also downplayed the violence that was occurring and ridiculed white people for criticizing the looting, stating it was simply how minority communities were expressing their grief over Floyd’s death.
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Democratic congressional nominee Aftyn Behn, a Tennessee state representative, is running in a Dec. 2nd special election for a vacant U.S. House seat. (Aftyn For Congress)
«Looks like Aftyn is getting a visit from the Ghost of Wokeness Past,» quipped Republican strategist Matt Gorman. «Democrats over and over have been haunted by their past positions they thought they could hide from. Ask Kamala Harris about her advocacy of taxpayer-funded sex change surgeries for illegal immigrant convicts on how that goes.»
Behn did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. However, Democrat strategist Eric Koch argued that attacks on Behn have been surging because «Republicans are getting worried in a district that Trump won by over 20 points,» adding that Democrats making this race competitive shows they are in good shape to take back the House in the midterms next year. Behn’s special election is slated to take place on Dec. 2.
While popular in the immediate aftermath following Floyd’s death, the push to «defund the police» has become a political liability for many Democrats running in recent elections. New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani faced criticism in the lead up to his victory for his past anti-police rhetoric, which Mamdani ultimately went on Fox News to apologize for. Earlier this month, a progressive candidate for U.S. Senate in Michigan, was reported to have quietly deleted old social media posts he made in support of defunding the police.
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«I’m currently involved in a transformative justice seminar, and so it’s how to imagine a world without police and what that looks like and what community mechanisms look like. How people cannot police themselves,» Behn said during an interview with Nashville Musicians For Change in July 2020. «If it’s been difficult for all of you to imagine a world without police, please tune in to, maybe not this episode, but the next one. Because I’ll talk about things I’m learning and growing as an organizer. Because I think, especially for those of us that are young, and talking to our parents about what police abolition looks like, that we can do it and there is a world.»
Behn’s comments came amidst her work with the left-wing nonprofit Indivisible, which itself also has a record of pushing to defund the police, calling the effort «critical» in order to «keep everyone safe,» in a Facebook post in 2020. The same year, the group called on people to phone their local, state and federal lawmakers to demand for policies and budgets that steer money away from police departments and toward «Black communities.»
Prior to joining the Tennessee state legislature in 2023, Aftyn Behn served as a regional organizing director for the left-wing nonprofit Indivisible. (Photos: Aftyn For Congress and Jason Davis/Getty Images)
«Good morning, especially to the 54% of Americans that believe burning down a police station is justified,» Behn said in another post she made, which came in response to polling about who saw the destruction of a Minneapolis police precinct as justified, versus not. The precinct was ultimately razed to the ground and police were forced to abandon the precinct as it burned down.
Amid the chaos spurred by the death of Floyd that resulted in billions of dollars in damage and multiple lives lost, Behn was also co-hosting a podcast at the time. During one of the episodes, titled «Black Lives Matter,» Behn argued that it «is not for us to decide as privileged white people how marginalized communities express their suffering and their pain and their grieving,» referring to the looting and the rioting that was taking place. Behn called it «a trope» for white people to say the looting was bad.
«I would really challenge all of you when you see these stories of looting and you revert to this law and order type of response, I really challenge you to step back from that and think about what’s driving that,» Behn added about the rioting. «You should not condemn it because you don’t know the first thing about being where they come from and what their generational trauma that has been inflicted upon them by the police, by institutional racism.»
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During the same podcast episode, Behn suggested the police don’t actually serve to guard and protect Americans.
«You think calling the cops is going to save you?» Behn asked her listeners. «Black men are being killed when white women call cops.»
Behn also came under fire this week for other comments on her podcast, during which she said she hated her city of Nashville and all the southern-style elements that come with it, like country music.
Metro Nashville Police Department cruiser sitting in downtown Nashville. (Metro Nashville Police Department)
Meanwhile, in addition to Behn’s remarks in interviews and on podcasts, the Democrat House hopeful also repeatedly espoused defund the police rhetoric on a now-deleted X account, which was formerly Twitter at the time.
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For example, Behn responded to a post, claiming «the Los Angeles teachers union» was demanding a commitment to «defund the police» before they would commit to returning to in-person learning for students, with a response that called on teachers in her state to do the same. The post Behn was responding to also called for more similar demands across the country.
«Let’s go Tennessee teachers! We have your back!!!!,» Behn wrote in response to the post.
«Your individual positive experiences with cops do not outweigh the fact that the entire criminal justice system was built on institutionalized racism,» another post Behn shared on her now-deleted Twitter account stated.
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Fraud engulfs Minnesota as another blue state kicks off New Year with ID for trains — not votes
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While Minnesota grapples with a burgeoning fraud crisis, one blue state that still does not require photo ID to vote will require residents seeking to pay a reduced fare on state-owned transit present one in order to qualify.
Reduced-fare on NJTransit, and mass transit in other states, is often offered to senior citizens, military personnel or the infirm. Meanwhile, officials in Minnesota are grappling with a multifaceted fraud scandal involving subsidies paid to largely Somali-led outfits and interests that are allegedly illegitimate and often appear unverified as well.
However, New Jersey is one of 14 states that does not require the same stringent photo identification to be shown at the polls on election day.
The discrepancy spurred an uproar online as the local outlet Shore News Network drew attention to it in its reporting of the new reduced-fare ID requirement.
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New Jersey Transit bus 159R drives through Lincoln Harbor in Hoboken. (Gary Hershorn/Getty Images)
«Starting January 1, photo ID required for NJ Transit reduced fares but not for voting,» a headline from the Rutherford-based outlet read.
«This change is only for customers who have been using an NJ Transit issued non-photo ID as proof of reduced fare eligibility,» NJ Transit spokesman John Chartier told NJAdvanceMedia.
Current non-photo reduced-fare ID cards will no longer be accepted as of Thursday, according to the agency, which announced that Jerseyans must apply for a new photo ID either in-person or by mail – while providing NJTransit proof of age and/or disability and a recent photo.
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NJ Transit said all non-photo Reduced Fare IDs will become invalid after the new year. Riders must apply for the new, free photo ID card online, by mail, or in person, providing proof of age or disability along with a recent photo, according to Shore News Network.
By contrast, on election day, voters must include their state driver’s license number on their registration form.
Failing to include that number on a registration form would then require identification be presented onsite for first-time voters; which could include a license or a utility bill, bank statement, paycheck or government document – not all of which have a photographic component.
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«This is how ridiculous Democrat-run states are,» one X user said. «Beginning January 1st, a photo ID will be required for the Reduced Fair Program, but it is still not required to vote. This is how they keep states blue by cheating.»
The volunteer good-governance organization New Jersey Project also slammed state policies:
«Photo ID needed for NJ Transit discounts but not for voting. Starting January,» the group said.
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«Priorities, Trenton?»
The blog New Jersey News wrote that state officials often claim voter ID «disenfranchises minorities» who cannot get such identification.
«Guess they won’t be riding the train either,» the outlet said.
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The group «Wake Up NJ» also fired back at the new policy, citing the same disparity between arguments against voter-ID and the state’s actions toward reduced-fare straphangers.
«New Jersey expects you to get that reduced fare for New Jersey Transit, but it’s OK [if you don’t] for voting,» they said.
The photo ID rule in-practice will allow a rider who goes a short distance on a state bus – considered a «Zone 1» fare – to pay 85 cents instead of the full $1.85. Commuters going to «Zone 3» – immediate suburbs of New York City – pay $5.30, but would be able to pay $2.40 under the reduced-fare ID policy.
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Longer trips see larger savings as NJTransit’s special limited-stop service on the Garden State Parkway from New York to Toms River and Atlantic City currently costs $57.40 to hit the casinos. Showing a reduced-fare ID card would allow the rider to pay $25.80.
Fox News Digital reached out to the New Jersey Secretary of State’s office, which oversees elections, for comment.
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While the United States presses for negotiations aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, Russia is signaling a parallel strategy — deepening cooperation with U.S. adversaries and portraying itself as resistant to Western pressure.
That posture was on display this week when Iran announced that three of its domestically designed satellites were launched into orbit aboard a Russian rocket.
The launch was broadcast by Iran’s Arabic-language state television channel Al-Alam News Network, which aired footage showing the satellites lifting off from Russian territory. The Associated Press and Reuters reported that the satellites were carried into orbit aboard a Russian rocket launched from eastern Russia, marking the seventh time Iran has conducted a satellite launch with Russian assistance.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian shake hands as they meet in Moscow, Russia Jan. 17, 2025. (Evgenia Novozhenina/Pool via Reuters)
Iranian Ambassador to Russia Kazem Jalali said the satellites were «designed and produced by Iranian scientists,» adding that cooperation between Tehran and Moscow continues «despite all the sanctions and threats,» according to Iranian state media cited by Reuters.
Iranian officials claim the satellites are intended for civilian purposes, including environmental monitoring and agriculture, though Western governments have long warned that Iran’s space program could advance technologies applicable to ballistic missile development.
The launch underscored a broader strategic relationship between Moscow that has expanded significantly since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Iran has supplied Russia with drones and other military equipment used on the battlefield, while Russia has provided diplomatic cover, economic cooperation and advanced technical support amid sweeping Western sanctions on both countries.
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A Russian warship and an Iranian army speed boat attend a joint naval exercise on Tuesday. (AP/Iranian Army)
The growing Russia-Iran alignment comes as tensions between Tehran and Washington continue to rise. After President Donald Trump recently warned that the United States could strike Iran again if it attempted to rebuild its nuclear program, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian issued a sharp response.
According to the Associated Press, Pezeshkian said any U.S. attack would be met with a «harsh and discouraging» response. Iranian officials framed the warning as defensive, arguing it was meant to deter potential U.S. aggression rather than signal an intention to initiate conflict. Tehran has repeatedly said its nuclear program is peaceful, a claim the United States and its allies dispute.
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Russian army Mi-24 helicopters fly above a warship at the Turali range on the Caspian Sea coast in the Republic of Dagestan in Southern Russia on Sept. 23, 2020 during the «Caucasus-2020» military drills gathering China, Iran, Pakistan and Myanmar troops, along with ex-Soviet Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus. (Dimitar Dilkoff / AFP via Getty Images)
The exchange highlights how Iran and Russia are increasingly positioning themselves as partners pushing back against U.S. pressure, even as Washington attempts to pursue diplomacy on multiple fronts. Russia has portrayed its partnerships with Iran and other sanctioned states as evidence that Western efforts to isolate Moscow have failed, while Iran has used its cooperation with Russia to showcase technological resilience under sanctions.
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