NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
FIRST ON FOX: The top outside political group that supported President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign is jumping into a hotly contested special election for a Republican-controlled House seat in a solidly red congressional district in Tennessee.
MAGA Inc. is launching ads to support Trump-endorsed Republican nominee Matt Van Epps in his showdown against Democratic nominee Aftyn Behn in the race to succeed former GOP Rep. Mark Green, who resigned from office in June to take a private sector job. The spots were shared first with Fox News Digital on Wednesday.
The ads, which MAGA Inc. says will run on broadcast TV and digital and are backed by a seven-figure buy that also includes investments in get-out-the-vote efforts, are the first by the group since last year’s presidential election.
Republican groups are pouring plenty of resources into the special election to avoid the possibility of a major upset and protect the GOP’s current razor-thin 219-214 majority in the House.
TRUMP-BACKED CANDIDATE WINS CROWDED GOP PRIMARY IN BATTLE FOR VACANT HOUSE SEAT
Trump carried the district — which is located in central and western Tennessee, stretches from Kentucky to Alabama, and includes parts of Nashville — by 22 points in last year’s presidential election.
But Democrats, energized after their sweeping victories earlier this month in the 2025 elections, are optimistic about their chances in the Dec. 2 special election. Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair Ken Martin, who campaigned with Behn last weekend, argued that she has “an excellent shot to win.”
DEMOCRAT AFTYN BEHN ADVANCES TO SPECIAL ELECTION IN BATTLE FOR VACANT CONGRESSIONAL SEAT IN DEEP-RED DISTRICT
The spots by MAGA Inc. target Behn, a state representative, former healthcare community organizer, and rising progressive star who some have dubbed the “AOC of Tennessee,” over her vote last year in the legislature against what Republicans tout as the state’s largest tax cut ever.
“Politician Aftyn Behn voted against the largest tax cut in state history,” the narrator in the spot said.
And the narrator claimed that “this year, Aftyn Behn backed more tax hikes that would cost Tennessee families thousands more,” which points to Behn’s opposition to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed the Republican-controlled Congress along partisan lines and extended the Trump tax cuts from the president’s first term.
“We can’t afford radical liberal Aftyn Behn,” the narrator argued.
The ad also includes a clip, used twice, of Behn saying, “I’m a very radical person.”
TRUMP LOOMS LARGE OVER SPECIAL ELECTION PRIMARY IN DEEP-RED CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT
Trump’s endorsement of Van Epps helped boost the former commissioner of the Tennessee Department of General Services to primary victory last month in an 11-candidate race for the Republican congressional nomination.
Last week, Trump hosted a tele-rally for Van Epps in which he claimed Behn was a “Marxist” and linked her to Zohran Mamdani, the socialist mayor-elect of New York City, whom Republicans are aiming to make the new face of the Democratic Party.
The Van Epps campaign is asking the president to campaign in person in the district ahead of the special election.
On Tuesday, former Vice President Kamala Harris, whom Trump defeated in last year’s presidential election, campaigned with Behn.
“Kamala Harris’ visit to Tennessee says it all — Aftyn Behn is a typical radical liberal. Behn supports higher taxes and open borders. Tennessee is going to reject her agenda and elect Matt Van Epps to Congress,” MAGA Inc. spokesman Alex Pfeiffer told Fox News Digital.
MAGA Inc. was not a major player in the 2022 midterms, as the group saved much of its resources for Trump’s 2024 campaign to win back the White House. MAGA Inc. ended up spending $456-million to support Trump’s campaign, according to Open Secrets, a nonprofit organization that tracks campaign finance data.
But with Trump aiming to help Republicans protect their House and Senate majorities in next year’s midterm elections — “We must keep the Majority at all costs,” Trump wrote in a social media post on Monday — MAGA Inc. is expected to play a much larger role than they did during the 2022 cycle.
“This spend in an off-year special election shows how committed MAGA Inc will be to ensuring the House and Senate remain in Republican control,” a source familiar told Fox News Digital.
And MAGA Inc. has the war chest to deliver on that commitment. The group raised nearly $177 million through June, according to the most recent fundraising reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.
Other conservative groups that are pouring big bucks into the special election in Tennessee include the Club for Growth Action and Conservatives for American Excellence PAC, which have both launched six-figure ad buys.
The DNC charged that “Republicans are panicking — and they should be.”
And DNC Deputy Communications Director Abhi Rahman argued that “Van Epps is Trump’s hand-picked candidate in an overwhelmingly Republican district, and he’s still in the fight of his life.”
Read the full article here
