2019 Nashville Mayoral Election

[100% pro-life no matter what]

The first round of voting was today, and here were the results of the officially non-partisan election:

John Cooper: 35%
David Briley (inc.): 25%
Carol Swain: 22%
John Ray Clemmons: 16%

General ideological dispositions:
Cooper- centrist, considered a conservative on city council, but is also the brother of Democratic Rep. Jim Cooper.  He hasn't officially said whether he calls himself a Democrat, Republican, or Independent.

Briley- Business Democrat, very unpopular due to heavy spending and proposed transit plan that failed a referendum.  He also only got his current role due to the previous mayor resigning in scandal (but did win a special election against Swain and a few minor candidates).

Swain- Far-right, has a really powerful story of overcoming poverty and finding Christ, but is also prone to making controversial statements

Clemmons- Left-wing, was the only candidate still pushing for a new transit referendum


The only runoff poll I have seen of Cooper vs. Briley has Cooper up double digits.  Especially if most of Swain's voters would prefer Cooper to Briley, I think Cooper has to be a massive favorite.

[smoltchanov]

Well, good result. The most radical candidates are eliminated, and voters have good alternatives in runoff.

[Epaminondas]

Isn't this exactly the sitution where ranked ballot voting would be ideal?
Now whatever happens, 40% of the voting population has been disenfranchised.

[smoltchanov]

Isn't this exactly the sitution where ranked ballot voting would be ideal?
Now whatever happens, 40% of the voting population has been disenfranchised.

Cooper would win rather easily then... BTW, moderates are effectively disenfranchised in US: vast majority of Republican candidates are "too right", and Democratic - "too left" for them. About 35% of population...

[Young Conservative]

Safe Cooper now.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

I saw a map on Twitter of the top finisher in every voting district (unfortunately, it didn't have the full results or a heat map).  Cooper won almost everywhere, but Briley and Clemmons won a handful of districts around downtown Nashville (Cooper's campaign went heavily on the idea that Briley was working only for downtown and nobody else).  Swain won one district too- District 4, which is heavily Republican and upper-class and is right on the border with Williamson County (and feels very suburban).  I'm kind of surprised she didn't win a few other suburban/quasi-rural feeling areas that typically vote Republican, but a lot of Republicans supported Cooper too.

I'd expect Cooper to win the runoff by a larger margin than Megan Barry defeated David Fox by four years ago.  Cooper and Fox are actually running very similar campaigns, but Fox had two things holding him back; he was explicitly a Republican and was facing an unknown rather than an unpopular incumbent.  Still, Fox would probably have had a chance to win this year (had Cooper stayed out), given Briley's unpopularity (and the fact that party labels will not appear on the ballot).

EDIT: I found a precinct map, and Swain did win some of those areas, but not a full voting district:
https://twitter.com/htmldon/status/1157439422729789446/photo/1

[Starry Eyed Jagaloon]

Been rooting for Briley from the start, but Nashville voters are always going to make the wrong decision (cough cough transit referendum)

[HillGoose]

Been rooting for Briley from the start, but Nashville voters are always going to make the wrong decision (cough cough transit referendum)

💯💯💯

Nashville voters were pretty dumb to vote down that transit referendum. I don't know if the govt there realizes it or not, but myself and a lot of other young people who moved out of Nashville for college are never moving back to Nashville and the absurd traffic situation (and even more than the situation itself, the city's obvious reluctance to deal with it) is a large part of that.

[HillGoose]

On top of that, I don't quite know how it's possible, but the two largest cities I've ever driven in, which are both notoriously congested (Atlanta and Los Angeles) don't even have as rage-inducing rush hour traffic as Nashville does whenever I'm unfortunate enough to be caught there.

I don't know whether it's that Atlanta and Los Angeles have at least some public transportation infrastructure, or better designed roads, or maybe some sorts of traffic restrictions (Maybe LA and Atlanta police actually enforce getting over as soon as possible when lanes are closed, whereas in Nashville there seems to be a tendency for drivers to rush to the front of a line of traffic next to a lane closure and cut in, something I didn't notice in LA or Atlanta) or whether it's just a psychological thing because I lived in Nashville during a time when traffic in the city wasn't so bad, but I would way rather drive through Atlanta or Los Angeles in rush hour than Nashville.

The voters in the city defeating the transit referendum just showed why I consider Nashville a doomed city that is going to kill itself through its own growth, and no matter who gets elected in this mayoral race I don't think it's going to change.

[PSOL]

I can’t echo the sentiment enough that the Transit Referendum ended badly. Driving around Nashville, we were stuck in driving 6 miles for 20 minutes at one time last summer. The place is not able to be driven on, and yet neither can Nashville legislate for less care on the road.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

Centrist John Cooper easily defeated center-left incumbent mayor David Briley by a larger than expected 70-29 margin in the runoff tonight.  Briley was wildly unpopular and mostly only had the support of moderate business progressives near downtown.  Cooper kind of unified conservatives, moderates, Nashville's minority communities, and possibly even some progressives.  Briley is the first incumbent Mayor of Nashville to ever lose reelection.  Based on the margin, almost anyone could have defeated him, except possibly Carol Swain (and I even think that would have been competitive).  Someone like David Fox (a moderate Republican who lost 55-45 to former Mayot Barry in 2015) would have had no problems even against Cooper.

[Gass3268]

Have to imagine Cooper's last night helped him get at least an extra 10-15 precent.

[Gass3268]

Lots of firsts for the City Council too:

https://twitter.com/yihyun_jeong/status/1172358994524102666?s=20

[The Arizonan]

Lots of firsts for the City Council too:

https://twitter.com/yihyun_jeong/status/1172358994524102666?s=20

Damnit. That story is behind a friggin paywall.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

Here is a precinct map (the most interesting thing is that there are apparently a few precincts where Cooper got 100% of the vote).

https://twitter.com/htmldon/status/1172657610849443840?s=19

[Skill and Chance]

Fascinating election.  Cooper is a plausible Dem TN-GOV down the line.