Aftyn Behn, Anthony Davis Prep Bids for Vacant House Seat

Two main candidates are emerging to succeed the late Rep. Bill Beck (D-Nashville), who died earlier this month.

Former Metro Councilmember Anthony Davis could be appointed by the council as soon as next week to temporarily fill the vacancy, a move deemed necessary in the event that a special legislative session on gun control moves forward as planned in August. Davis will also run in the special election to fill the remainder of the term, he tells Scene sister publication the Nashville Post.

The Democratic primary, expected to be the main event in the overwhelmingly Democratic East Nashville-based district, is scheduled for Aug. 3, on the same ballot as the mayoral and Metro Council elections. The general election will be held Sept. 14, when Metro runoffs are scheduled.

Davis, who represented District 7 from 2011 to 2019 on the Metro Council, will not be alone on the ballot. Nashville organizer Aftyn Behn has appointed a treasurer for the race and is planning to pull a qualifying petition Thursday, she says. The qualifying deadline for the race is June 22. (Another Democrat, Reyn Haun, picked up a qualifying petition on June 7.)

Davis and Behn plan to offer different approaches if elected to the state House. Behn, campaign director for progressive group RuralOrganizing.org and a former organizer with Indivisible and Tennessee Justice Center, says she hopes to offer backup to the so-called Tennessee Three — Reps. Gloria Johnson, Justin Pearson and Justin Jones, the latter two having been expelled from the state House (and then reinstated) for leading a gun control protest from the floor. Behn herself has been a frequent presence at protests at the state legislature on issues ranging from abortion to Medicaid expansion to Rep. David Byrd’s continued presence in office.

“This is a moment in time where people are calling for change,” Behn says. “They want to disrupt the status quo on the heels of the Tennessee Three protest. For me, it was a moment of reckoning.”

Behn confirms that she was considering a primary challenge of Beck prior to his death.

“Rep. Beck is irreplaceable, but I thought about offering the district something different,” she says.

Though she says she would like to work with moderate Republicans on making changes to the state’s abortion ban, Behn says a key goal if elected would be helping the caucus organize ahead of 2024 in order to get more Democrats elected to the state legislature, where they are in the superminority in both chambers.

“I have worked to elect Democrats up and down the ballot across the state,” she says. “I would love to be the organizer inside the caucus, on the inside working with candidates and incumbents to organize in these competitive state House districts across the state for 2024. I really look at my role as shifting from an outside agitator to an inside organizer and colleague in order to win some seats in 2024 so we can actually pass some progressive policies.”

Davis calls Beck “a dear friend” and says he would continue Beck’s legacy “of being able to actually get work done, get actual bills passed and at the very least do constituent services really well.”

In addition to his two terms on Metro Council, Davis is president and owner of East Nashville Beer Works, which he is currently in the process of expanding to Wilson County.

“There's a lot of work that can be done at the state level,” Davis says. “There's a lot of overlap on issues like education, transportation, infrastructure, economic development. Those are the kind of things I want to work on. I want to go up there and get things done.”