August 2023 Special Elections Results
August 4, 2023
While most counties went through their major election cycle last year, under its charter, Davidson County held an election yesterday for mayor, vice mayor and metro council members. A new Nashville-Davidson county mayor was inevitable for this year’s election, since current Mayor John Cooper announced back in January of this year that he would not be seeking reelection. That left the mayoral field wide open for interested candidates, and 12 candidates qualified to seek the office.
The candidates included metro council members, state legislators, and other county officials as well as individuals from the private sector. Under the Metro charter, if no candidate gets at least 50% of the vote for mayor, there is a run-off for the top two vote-getters. Due to the crowded field of candidates, that outcome was expected this year. Next month, Metro Council Member Freddie O’Connell will take on Alice Rolli in September’s special run-off election to decide who will be Nashville-Davidson County’s next mayor.There were further changes in Nashville’s leadership with Metro Councilmember Angie Henderson winning 51% of the votes for Vice Mayor over incumbent Jim Shulman (47.4% of the votes). Henderson will take office along with a new mayor after September’s run-off elections.
Elections were also held for the 35 council districts and five at-large positions on the metro council. Only one at-large candidate, Zulfat Suara, garnered enough votes to avoid a run-off. The other four positions will be decided in the September run-off, along with a few district council positions where no candidate garnered 50% of the vote. There were also an unusual number of off-cycle elections for state house members. Both Justin Jones of Nashville and Justin Pearson of Memphis won re-election to the House of Representatives after being expelled at the end of the legislative session. Their counties had already reappointed both of them to their positions after their vacancies were created.
In East Tennessee, former House member Timothy Hill won the election to replace Scotty Campbell, who resigned earlier this year. Primary elections were also held in Nashville to replace Rep. Bill Beck who passed away suddenly this summer. In the Democratic Primary, activist Aftyn Behn prevailed and will take on Republican David Hooven, who was unopposed. That general election will be held this fall.
For full election details of the August 3rd elections, please visit https://www.tennessean.com/elections/results/tennessee/