Aftyn Behn’s Position

• Supports hospital funding, food-security programs, and local services that offer direct protections against these scientifically measurable harms.

Van Epps’ Position

• Supports deregulation and limited federal healthcare roles.

• Seeks to reduce ACA subsidies and constraining Medicaid.

Aftyn Behn’s Position

• Protecting federal programs and lowering costs aligns with strengthening ACA provisions and Medicare payment reforms.

Van Epps’ Position

• Signals support for limiting federal program expansion, often paired with higher senior healthcare costs and reduced scientific investment.

Aftyn Behn’s Position

• Supports community services, and hospital investment, and science-informed aging programs and senior health infrastructure.

Van Epps’ Position

• Aligns with conservative fiscal policy that often results in lower federal investment in senior-focused scientific programs.

Aftyn Behn’s Position

• Supports hospital and mental health funding the research and continuity of care that veterans depend on.

Van Epps’ Position

• Supports VA reform focused on oversight and privatization, not expansion or science-backed mental health investment.

Aftyn Behn’s Position

• Supports reversing federal program cuts for school nutrition and saving the ACA protections that increase the affordability of pediatric care.

• Calls for setting vaccine standards based on science.

• Supports prioritizing maternal health access and provider expansion, therefore aligning with scientific consensus on policies that reduce maternal mortality.

Van Epps’ Position

• Endorsed reduced federal involvement that would weaken childcare safety standards, nutrition science programs, and pediatric healthcare coverage.

• Supports conservative reproductive regulation and reduced federal healthcare roles - conditions linked to declining maternal health indicators.

Aftyn Behn’s Position

• Lifelong advocate for rural communities supporting expanded federal investment in evidence-based infrastructure supporting rural life including: nutrition, tele-health, ER access.

Van Epps’ Position

• Deregulation may help agriculture, but doesn't address science-backed rural healthcare needs.

• Explicitly endorsed recent agriculture tariffs.

Aftyn Behn’s Position

• Advocates for worker protections and labor policies.

• Worker-safety and hospital access stances align with empirical labor-health data.

Van Epps’ Position

• Follows GOP positions on labor regulation and union oversight.

• Supports reduced workplace regulation, which weakens science-based worker protection systems.

Aftyn Behn’s Position

• Vowed to protect federal programs and lowering costs aligns with strengthening ACA provisions and healthcare payment reforms.

• Supports community services and hospital investment directly support science-informed aging programs and senior health infrastructure.

Van Epps’ Position

• Signals support for limiting federal program expansion, often paired with higher senior healthcare costs and reduced scientific investment.

• Aligns with conservative fiscal policy that often results in lower federal investment in senior-focused scientific programs.

Aftyn Behn’s Position

• Supports federal funding for health and science research.

• Supports strengthening NIH, CDC, NSF, and other science agencies aligned with disease advocacy priorities.

• Prioritizes research funding, hospital investments & academic/research partnerships.

• Believes funding strengthens the academic-science pipeline.

Van Epps’ Position

• Supports increasing private sector research funding, which may not focus on specific needs of TN-07.

• Reduced federal research roles represent a direct threat to this segment's core needs.

• Rollbacks and constrained federal spending harm the scientific ecosystem Vanderbilt, Tennessee State, HBCUs, and VAs rely on.