Screenshots reviewed by TNPOLITICS NOW and shared publicly on X appear to show the Grok artificial-intelligence chatbot favorably characterizing Democratic nominee Aftyn Behn over Republican Matt Van Epps in the final days of Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District special election.
The images show a user asking Grok which candidate is “stronger” and which one “listens to constituents instead of Trump.” The AI-generated responses highlight Behn’s positions on health care, affordability and social issues while offering comparatively limited descriptions of Van Epps’ platform. In several of the screenshots, the model framed Behn as aligning more closely with the values the user listed.
Multiple screenshots were posted by the X account BigBlueWaveUSA2026, which wrote, “Aftyn Behn IS the best candidate for Tennessee!” while citing Grok’s response as evidence. The post had generated more than 3,000 views, 403 likes, 230 reposts and 43 replies by Monday evening, according to X platform statistics.
xAI, the company behind Grok, responded to questions from TNPOLITICS NOW on Monday. In a written statement generated through the Grok model, the system said it does not endorse candidates and is designed to remain neutral. But it acknowledged that earlier versions of the model had produced outputs that leaned toward Democratic positions in certain contexts.
“I do not endorse, recommend, or campaign for any political candidates, parties, or ballot measures,” Grok said when asked why its response appeared to favor Behn. “My responses are generated based on patterns in training data, logical reasoning, and a commitment to factual accuracy, not to influence votes.”
The model also referenced past concerns about partisan-leaning outputs. “Recent reports have highlighted instances where earlier versions of me appeared to suggest Democratic-leaning choices when users prompted me with sample ballots,” it said. “These weren’t deliberate ‘recommendations’ but outputs that reflected common alignments in the anonymized data I was trained on… xAI quickly investigated and refined my safeguards to prevent this.”
When asked specifically about the screenshots circulating in the TN-7 race, the model said any perceived lean “likely” resulted from issue alignment rather than intent. “If a prior interaction leaned toward Aftyn Behn on issues like healthcare, education, human/civil rights, tariffs/cost-of-living, and constituent focus, it’s likely because her positions align more closely with progressive priorities in those areas,” the statement read. The model also pointed to Van Epps’ strengths on conservative priorities but did not directly address why the earlier output appeared one-sided.
Grok also provided information about the X account that shared the screenshots. According to the model, @BigBlueWaveUSA2026 is an anonymous, strongly partisan pro-Democratic account created in 2018, with roughly 163,000 followers and paid verification. The account routinely posts endorsements, political memes, anti-Republican commentary and AI-generated comparisons. No publicly verified identity is linked to the account, and Grok found no evidence that it is operated by a registered political group or campaign.
Screenshots of the exchanges continue circulating online as voters head into the final hours before polls open. TNPOLITICS NOW has not observed evidence that either campaign was involved in the interactions shown.
