Cultivate Real Power Instead of Chasing Outrage

What happens to the women who keep showing up to fight for democracy when the rooms making the laws have stopped pretending to play by the rules?In this episode of Women I Want You to Know by Andrea L. Johnston™ Podcast, Andrea sits down with Aftyn Behn, Tennessee State Representative for District 51, organizer, and former candidate for Tennessee's 7th Congressional District. Aftyn came up through grassroots advocacy, starting as one of the first organizers at the Tennessee Justice Center, then leading rural progressive work at National Indivisible and Rural Organizing. She ran for the State House in 2023 after the Tennessee Three protests and has since become one of the country's most distinctive voices on what it actually takes to build women's political power inside a state the Wilson Center has described as an electoral autocracy.Aftyn and Andrea trace the through-line of her work: the most punishing policies for women are being written in the states with the fewest women at the table, and the legislation drafted in Tennessee is being engineered to climb the Sixth Circuit and land at the Supreme Court. They talk about why the South is the frontline for the rest of the country, why local organizing beats national outrage, and why the playbook Aftyn is running is borrowed directly from the civil rights movement she studies in Eyes on the Prize.This conversation goes well beyond Tennessee. Aftyn shares what it costs to run for higher office as a woman right now, why old-school misogyny has come back into the open, and how she has trained herself to stop reacting and start building. Her guidance for women feeling overstimulated by the news cycle is the same guidance she gives candidates: pick a lane, find your cadre, move at the speed of trust. Her closing call to action is a charge every founder and operator should hear: get off the sidelines, get your hands dirty, and build the bench for the women who come next.This episode is for the woman who feels the urgency in her bones, who is tired of reacting to every headline, and who is ready to plant her work somewhere it can actually grow.In this episode, you'll hear:Why the states with the fewest women in government have the most dangerous policy for womenHow Aftyn went from the UN refugee agency in Geneva to one of Tennessee's most-watched legislative seatsWhy she dressed as Marie Antoinette to troll a sitting House Finance chair, and what organizing lesson came out of itHow Tennessee is being used as a testing ground for federal rollbacks of women's rightsWhy the Sixth Circuit pipeline matters for every woman, in every stateWhat the civil rights movement teaches us about using Southern legislation to move a national narrativeWhy localization is the strongest antidote to authoritarianismHow to choose a lane when the news cycle is engineered to keep women paralyzedWhy the road to higher office is brutal for women right now, and why she is going to keep walking itWhat Gen Z women are getting right that the rest of us need to learn fromWhy your greatest legacy as a leader is the people you build the ladder forEpisode ResourcesThe Behn Factor on SubstackRep. Aftyn Behn, Tennessee House District 51Connect with Aftyn Behn on LinkedInTennessee Justice CenterHer Bold MoveEnd Times Fascism, Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor in The GuardianEmergent Strategy by Adrienne Maree BrownEyes on the Prize documentary series, PBSTimestamps(0:00) Introduction(1:30) From organizing to the Tennessee statehouse(3:13) Trolling power as Marie Antoinette(5:58) Why she ran for Congress(7:45) Her agenda and Pot for Potholes(11:19) Reproductive rights inside an electoral autocracy(13:55) Repealing nineteen laws with one ban(16:15) As goes the South, so goes the nation(19:36) Advice for women facing burnout(22:34) Find your people and choose a lane(24:05) The belief she had to release(25:02) Surviving threats and growing thick skin(28:55) Building the bench down ballot(31:16) Substack and how to support