Megan Barry Picks Up Endorsement From A Former Nashville Mayor (And Governor)

Former Gov. Phil Bredesen announced his support Thursday for Megan Barry to be the next mayor of Nashville, characterizing her as a non-ideological bridge-builder who — at times — voted against her personal views while on the Metro Council.

“Openness and coalition building is what she does and she does it very well and is what we need to keep doing here in Nashville,” Bredesen said.

It’s the most politically high-profile endorsement in what is now a two-way race. But Bredesen made sure this didn’t come off as partisan, even though the room was full of Democratic politicians and staffers from his administrations.

Megan Barry’s opponent, former school board chair David Fox, has accused her of being too liberal to represent Nashville. Bredesen, who is known as a centrist on social issues, said, “if there were any real danger of that, I wouldn’t be up here.”

During his endorsement, Bredesen said his backing of Barry shouldn’t be seen as anti-David Fox, whose wife even worked on one of Bredesen’s campaigns.

In a statement, Fox said he admires Bredesen and aspires “to be the mayor he was.”

“The good news is that I’m not running against Phil Bredesen,” Fox said.