Election Night Live Blog: John Cooper Headed To Victory For Nashville Mayor

Councilman John Cooper will be Nashville’s next mayor.

During early voting, he came in more than 40 points ahead of incumbent Mayor David Briley, who already conceded to Cooper minutes after the first results came in. 

More than 49,000 people cast early or absentee ballots for mayor.

In this runoff election, Nashville voters are also choosing four new at-large council members, as well as council members for Districts 2, 7, 13, 16, 21, 23, 26 and 30.

Polls just closed at 7 p.m., so results from Election Day have yet to trickle in.

This story was last updated at 7:30 p.m. We’ll have more updates as results come in.

Briley concedes to Cooper

“The last six weeks have been the toughest of my political career,” adds that he wanted to do more.
pic.twitter.com/C67qIOSsS0— Blake Farmer (@flakebarmer)
September 13, 2019

At-Large Race: Voters lean toward women candidates

In the other citywide race, Nashville voters appear to have selected a record number of women for at-large Metro Council.

After early returns, three of the four top vote-getters in the runoff are women. That puts the Council on track to eclipse the previous record of two at-large councilwomen.

The race for the final at-large slot on the council appears to be between Steve Glover, a current Metro Council member who’s run as a conservative, and Zulfat Suara, who would be the first Muslim to serve on the council. Glover led Suara by about 400 votes in the early voting.

Election Night Parties Kick Off

More music, fam. This is like a music festival. The only thing is that most people are sitting down, and some are wearing suits. But, you know.
pic.twitter.com/aPCLg0Zk91— Sergio Martínez-Beltrán (@SergioMarBel)
September 12, 2019

Folks in the room are chatty. But no one seems to be preparing for victory and four more years.— Blake Farmer (@flakebarmer)
September 12, 2019

Turnout Expected To Drop

Jeff Roberts, Davidson County’s election administrator, says it looks like fewer people will be voting in the runoff than in first round of voting in August.

Early voting for the runoff was roughly even with the general election, but a count from the county’s biggest precincts project to about a 20 percent drop on Election Day. Turnout also seems to be down compared to the 2015 runoff between Megan Barry and David Fox.