Democratic consultant says ‘AOC of Tennessee’ not a ‘serious’ candidate, warns party losing grip on extremists

Democratic consultant Julian Epstein called out Aftyn Behn, the “AOC of Tennessee,” on Sunday, insisting the progressive vying to succeed Rep. Mark Green is “not a very serious candidate.”

“She’s certainly an extreme candidate. She said she hates Nashville, where she would represent. She’s for defunding the police, a whole host of very far-left sort of Democratic socialist ideas,” Epstein said on “Fox News Live.”

“I think this reflects two failures on the part of the Democratic Party,” he continued.

“It used to be a generation ago that the Democratic leadership, say, Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, would be able to stop far-left candidacies like this by using the state Democratic apparatus and the donor apparatus to make sure that you had centrist candidates that would have a better chance of winning and that would reflect well on the Democratic Party generally, and that infrastructure has just collapsed.”

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U.S. 7th Congressional District candidate Aftyn Behn speaks during a political forum Monday, Sept. 8, in Dickson, Tenn. (George Walker IV/AP Photo)

“The Democratic leadership no longer has that kind of control that they did, and that’s why you see extremist candidates emerging around the country.”

The other failure, he said, lies in the Democratic Party’s inability to articulate ideas that appeal to an “increasingly disaffected youth.”

“That’s why you get bad ideas that have sensational online appeal, why you have those ideas starting to gain more interest amongst, particularly again, as I say, the disaffected and the unhappy youth,” he added.

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Then-House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) arrives to begin the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, Jan. 30, 2024, at the Capitol in Washington. Green announced his resignation in June to take a private-sector job. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)

Behn, a Democratic state representative and former healthcare community organizer, is running against Republican nominee Matt Van Epps to represent Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District, which includes parts of the Democratic stronghold of Nashville. 

The winner will succeed former GOP Rep. Mark Green, who announced his resignation from office in June to take a private-sector job.

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Behn caught flak from the Republican National Committee (RNC) for a resurfaced 2020 podcast in which she described how she “hate[s]” Nashville and all the things that make the city an “it” city to the rest of the country.

Kate Briefs, campaign manager for Aftyn Behn for Congress, previously told Fox News Digital in a statement, “Republicans are panicking and in a last ditched attempt, they are distracting from the fact that Washington Republicans and Matt Van Epps are raising costs on Tennessee families and ripping away their health care while Aftyn Behn will lower Tennessee families’ costs and make groceries more affordable by eliminating the state’s grocery tax.”

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.