Van Epps touts endorsements from controversial, corrupt figures

Republican House candidate Matt Van Epps is touting endorsements from questionable figures, including a mayor accused of corruption and a state senator who voted to save a monument to a Ku Klux Klan (KKK) member.

Van Epps is running in the special election to replace retiring Tennessee Rep. Mark Green. He is the former commissioner of the Tennessee Department of General Services. His Democratic opponent is state Rep. Aftyn Behn.

Van Epps’ campaign website lists endorsements from several prominent Republicans, including President Donald Trump. Also on the list is Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs.

A 2022 state investigation found that Jacobs’ chief of staff, Bryan Hair, allegedly misused government funds when he had the county buy him a $3,700 golf cart. Former Knox County Parks Director Paul White says Jacobs pressured him to lie to state investigators about Hair’s misconduct and unleashed a threatening, profanity-filled tirade when he refused.

White later filed a federal lawsuit over the incident, and alleged that Jacobs also had county employees remove a snake from his home. Jacobs says the task didn’t violate ethics rules because the workers did it on their lunch break. White says the job actually took two hours.

The county paid White $150,000 to settle the suit. Hair was fired and never criminally charged.

Prior to entering politics, Jacobs was a professional wrestler under the stage name Kane. In 2004, he participated in a WWE storyline in which his character kidnapped a woman and then sexually assaulted and impregnated her.

Van Epps’ website also celebrates an endorsement from state Sen. Jack Johnson.

In 2017, Johnson opposed an effort to remove a bust of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest from the Tennessee State Capitol building. Forrest was a prolific slave trader who later became the first Grand Wizard of the KKK.

Johnson’s side won, and the bust remained in place for almost three years until the resolution was revived in the aftermath of the George Floyd protests. At that time, Johnson was one of only two lawmakers who supported keeping the bust.

Van Epps was initially expected to win Tennessee’s Trump-friendly 7th district, but recent polls have shown Behn trailing Van Epps by only two points.