Freddie O’Connell won the Nashville Mayoral runoff election on Thursday, defeating his Republican opponent Alice Rolli.
With 100 percent of the vote counted shortly before 9:00 pm, O’Connell had 64.3 percent of the vote, while Rolli had 35.7 percent of the vote, according to unofficial election results by the Davidson County Election Commission.
The raw vote total was 61,840 for O’Connell and 34,384 for Rolli out of 96,330 total votes cast.
Thursday’s election also included the Tennessee House District 51 Special General and the runoff elections for Council District 4, Council District 11, Council District 29, and four at-large seats on the Metro Nashville Council.
The election for Council District 4 saw Mike Cortese defeating Davette Blalock with 53.4 percent of the vote.
Jeff Eslick defeated Eric A. Patton in Council District 11 with 50.4 percent of the vote and Tasha Ellis defeated John Reed with 62.9 percent of the vote in Council District 29.
The candidates with the highest vote totals elected to the four at-large seats on the Council were Delishia Porterfield (14.5 percent), Quin Evans-Segall (13.9 percent), Burkley Allen (13.3 percent), and Olivia Hill (12.9 percent).
In the Tennessee House District 51 Special General, Democrat Aftyn Behn defeated Republican David C. Hooven with 74.9 percent of the vote.
The results of Music City’s mayoral race between O’Connell and Rolli were the most anticipated out of every contest on Thursday’s ballot.
O’Connell, who once described himself as the “only truly progressive candidate for Mayor,” and Rolli, a Republican, both announced their candidacies shortly after incumbent Mayor John Cooper announced he would not be seeking re-election this year.
During an interview with Rolli while votes were still being counted, NewsChannel 5 reporter Jason Lamb asked the candidate why Nashville voters stood by O’Connell in Thursday’s election, acknowledging an April poll by Vanderbilt University that showed 56 percent of residents believe Nashville is on the “wrong track.”
“We’ve been talking a lot about this poll that says most Nashville voters think Nashville is on the wrong track and yet it appears with the votes so far, they’ve selected a mayor that is, at least, presumably more politically aligned with the outgoing mayor,” Lamb said before asking, “Why do you think that is?”
“Sometimes even in a non-partisan race, people vote against a party instead of for a person, and so I think there’s probably some of that at play here,” Rolli said.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
O’Connel’s victory is one of the few pieces of good news in a currently red state that once used to be fairly progressive and moderate when I was a child in Tennessee decades ago.
Red Flag Rolli only has her self to thank for the loss! Her pathetic anti-second amendment comments cost her many votes along with her support of surveillance state cameras everywhere.
Nashville still on the wrong track…….
Nashville has fully evolved into a total sh**hole.
speak at the council meetings?
to what end?
what will change?
shouting into a cave.
THIS IS THE PERSON THEY ELECTED MAYOR. a hard-leftist.
100,000 people voted for Trump in 2020 in Davidson Country, but we couldn’t get nearly half that to come out and vote for a Republican mayoral candidate when faced with the most far-left, progressive alternative. According to the official results from the election website, just over 100,000 people even voted in this run-off. That’s pathetic.
The last last stats I’ve seen say there are over 500,000 residents of Davidson County that are of voting age, yet we let roughly 14% of the population steer us right into the abyss in this runoff.
I’m sure a large percentage of those in that 14% are the liberal transplants we’ve attracted by design to the county over the past 10 years or more, but it’s inexcusable that Republicans don’t get out and vote.
Enjoy the fruits of your inaction conservative Nashville. The call to arms was given…..and more than half of you didn’t even show up. Nashville will never recover. The city’s future is that of present day Austin and Atlanta. I’m leaving this place as soon as it is feasible for me to do so.
Nashville will continue to be a crime ridden city. I hope you don’t have a Dodge Challenger it will be stolen. Traffic laws are non existent anymore. It use to be a good city. But these liberals have ruined it. And surely there are more than 30k republicans in this city. Not voting may have doomed it.
Now that he’s elected Mayor, does anyone want to find the people who knew him at Brown and MBA? Maybe scrub the archives of Liberadio podcasts where he and Mary Mancini held their craft beer hall putsches?
When the Nashville Scene is in ball slurping love with someone, that should give you pause about what’s getting ready to happen. For all they have sucked, prior mayors have largely been establishment Democrat types. O’Connell is a doctrinaire Leftist who prior to the Metro council was a job hopping, anti-car, activist/podcaster. Mancini frequently insulted Tennesseans as bigots, racists, etc. while he nodded along side her and she’s on his campaign. This isn’t business as usual. This is choosing the form of your destructor. A pencil necked Marxist who has never moderated on any position in his life.
Disappointing but that doesn’t mean the fight isn’t over. You want your voices to be heard? GO TO THE COUNCIL MEETINGS AND SPEAK AT THOSE EVENTS!
Fast Freddie=mini cooper. so very tired of left wing (progressives) running for council then running for mayor. Nashville is getting worse, been here for 60 years.
nashville is done. D O N E.