Nashville Mayor John Cooper announces he won’t seek re-election

Nashville will be getting a new mayor. Rather than running for a second term, Mayor John Cooper is stepping aside.

Cooper convened a press conference Tuesday morning to announce his decision.

“In the months ahead, I’m excited to focus on three things,” he said, “continuing our historic investment in education and public safety, to more fully implementing our housing-first approach to homelessness and rehousing our homeless neighbors, and finally, to finish getting all the dividends for the city from the East Bank plan.”

The mayor’s announcement creates an open field for 2023. Several candidates had already thrown their hats in the ring to challenge Cooper, including Matt Wiltshire and Councilmembers Freddie O’Connell and Sharon Hurt. Since Cooper’s announcement, more people, including property assessor Vivian Wilhoite, have shown interest in the job.

Nashville has had three one-term mayors since 2018 when former Mayor Megan Barry resigned after pleading guilty to felony theft. Vice Mayor David Briley stepped in to serve as mayor. Then, as a councilmember at the time, Cooper told The Tennessean he wouldn’t run for mayor, but changed his mind and defeated the incumbent Mayor David Briley for the position in 2019.

During his time in office, Cooper’s wins have been turning around the city’s finances, increasing pay for teachers and staff for the police department.

It’s come with pains like increasing the property taxes during the pandemic and delaying the building of the permanent supportive housing.

Over his term, the city experienced the March tornadoes, COVID-19 pandemic and Christmas day bombing.

“The mayor has led us through a very, very difficult time,” councilmember Angie Henderson says. She was behind Cooper when he gave his mayoral victory speech. “As I was standing on that stage, who would have anticipated a major tornado, a bombing, a pandemic, all those things in one mayoral term? It is an immense weight to carry.”

In his speech, Cooper also boasts about opening a new Southeast police precinct.

Tanaka Vercher serves as a councilmember in the area and says the project is still in the design phase. She’s concerned that there haven’t been significant neighborhood upgrades in Southeast and Antioch.

“I would have been more surprised if he had chosen to run for reelection,” Vercher says. She was a previous supporter of Cooper. “One of the main reasons why we galvanized the Southeast quadrant was because public safety was such a high priority for us. Infrastructure was also such a high priority for us. Diversity of housing stock, educational facilities was a huge priority for us. Promises were made, but they were not kept.”

Right now, negotiations for the Global Mall, speedway racetrack and Titan’s stadium with a new downtown neighborhood are still up in the works.

Tennessee officials are currently attacking the city for not hosting the Republican National Convention due to security concerns. The state is looking to slice the council in half and to take away $623 million worth of taxes from the Music City Center. The bite out of funding for the convention center would impact the city’s finances and undermine Cooper’s deal to provide consistent funding for affordable housing from its taxes.

Cooper’s term will end late in the summer. His brother, Jim Cooper, recently decided against running for re-election in the U.S. House after the state redistricted his seat to lean more Republican.