Nashville Mayor seeks re-election today against nine challengers
Most elections in the U.S. take place on Tuesdays with some states—Hawaii, Louisiana, and Texas—holding certain primary and special elections on Saturdays. One state—Tennessee—elects state and county officers on Thursdays as required by the state constitution, and many local jurisdictions, such as Nashville and Memphis, do the same.
Incumbent David Briley faces nine challengers in today’s nonpartisan election for mayor of Nashville.
Briley succeeded former Mayor Megan Barry upon her resignation in March 2018 and won a special election in May 2018 to complete her term. In that special election, Briley received 54.4% of the vote in a 13-candidate field. Since Nashville's Metro government was formed in 1963, no mayor has ever lost a bid for re-election.
Briley's top three challengers according to local media outlets are state Rep. John Clemmons (D), At-Large City Councilmember John Cooper, and former Vanderbilt professor Carol Swain. Policy debates in the race have largely centered on how the city raises and spends money.
Thirty-one mayoral elections in the country’s 100 largest cities are being held in 2019. In 20 of those cities, the incumbent was a Democrat at the start of 2019. Seven incumbents were Republican, three were independent, and the affiliation of one was unknown. Briley is considered a member of the Democratic party.
Voters will also elect all 41 members of the metro council, including the vice-mayor. Twenty-seven incumbents are running for re-election and there are 14 open-seat races. If no candidate receives a majority of the vote in any race, a runoff election will be held September 12—which is also a Thursday. Nashville is the second-largest city in Tennessee and the 24th-largest city in the United States.
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