Tim Herndon and Antoinette Lee were the top vote-getters in Tuesday’s nonpartisan special election to fill the District 33 Metro Council seat.
But since neither received more than 50 percent of votes cast, they will face each other in a runoff election. The runoff will be held Sept. 19, reports AntiochTenn.com.
Metro Council is the legislative body of the consolidated city-government of Nashville and Davidson County created in 1963. District 33 covers part of Antioch.
The council has 40 members of which 35 are elected by district and five are elected at-large, or county-wide. Members are elected to four-year terms and in 1994 were limited to two terms.
There are 11,267 voters in District 33 and there were 1,083 votes cast for the special election. Early voting was held July 26 through Aug. 10. Here are the unofficial results released Tuesday evening by the Davidson County Election Commission:
Antoinette Lee             415 votes           39.04 percent
Tim Herndon              402 votes           37.82 percent
Jack Byrd III               136 votes           12.79 percent
Martinez Coleman           70 votes            6.59 percent
Michael E. Mayhew, Sr.      40 votes             3.76 percent
Herndon runs a small company with his wife called Financial BluePrint that designs and builds group insurance programs and provides HR services to companies and individuals. Some of the couple’s clients are Tennessee city and county governments, which Herndon says has given him insight on local government. Herndon was endorsed by the Davidson County Fraternal Order of Police (FOP).
Lee works as a field organizer for the Tennessee Education Association teachers union. She was strongly backed by the TEA in her campaign. She also was endorsed by the AFL-CIO’s Central Labor Council of Nashville and Middle Tennessee. Several Democratic state lawmakers were on the host committee for her campaign kick-off.
Jack Byrd, who placed a distant third Tuesday, is set to go on trial in October in Giles County on extortion charges.
Tuesday’s special election was held to replace former Councilman Sam Coleman, who was sworn in as a Nashville judge to replace former Judge Casey Moreland, who resigned because of a corruption scandal.
