Nashville’s Mayor Announces He Is Not Seeking Reelection as 2023 Race Nears

Nashville Mayor John Cooper speaks during a news conference on the Christmas day bombing in Nashville, Tenn., on Dec. 26, 2020. Terry Wyatt/Getty Images

Tennessee’s capital city could have its fourth mayor in less than five years as incumbent Mayor John Cooper announced Tuesday that he would not be seeking reelection. The race to lead the growing city will take place on Aug. 3.

“Now [after] a great deal of thought and prayer and talking with my wonderful wife, I have decided to not seek reelection as Nashville’s mayor,” he told reporters in a brief press conference. “I have no doubt there are and will be many exceptional people applying for the job. They should. We need them to ... I hope Nashville’s next mayor will use the platform we have created and build on it.” (13:27)

Cooper defeated former Mayor David Briley 69 percent to 30 percent in the 2019 election.

Briley only served as mayor for a little over a year after former Mayor Megan Barry resigned amid a scandal involving an extramarital affair with her security detail with the two pleading guilty to felony theft.

Briley was appointed acting mayor and won a special election to serve the remaining time of Barry’s term prior to being defeated by Cooper. Cooper was the first candidate to defeat an incumbent mayor seeking reelection in the history of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, which was established in 1963.

While Nashville’s mayoral elections are nonpartisan, Cooper, Briley, and Barry all declared they were Democrats. Cooper’s brother is former Democratic Congressman Jim Cooper who represented Nashville in Congress until this year.

Touting His Actions as Mayor

In a short press conference Tuesday, Cooper said he was making a “happy” announcement.

“I have had a great time in my government service,” Cooper said. “I came as a councilman seven and a half years ago to make government work better for all of us. And four years ago, I ran for mayor, knowing that the city needed to change.” (4:42)

Cooper touted his plans to have safe neighborhoods with better infrastructure, beautiful parks, and well-funded schools. (5:15) “And we have done all of that,” Cooper said.

Cooper’s term started out with struggles and those struggles only continued to pile up. The week he took over as mayor, the government faced a state takeover of finances for financial mismanagement, the water department was an officially distressed public utility, and cash reserves were depleted, Cooper said. (5:25)

Nashville Mayor John Cooper speaks at the Glen Campbell Museum and Rhinestone Stage in Nashville, Tenn., on Feb. 13, 2020. Jason Kempin/Getty Images

“In less than a year, Nashville suffered from the tornado, derecho, COVID, courthouse attack, the downtown bombing, 101 COVID press conferences in one year to guide the city through a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic,” he said. “In many respects, 2020 was itself a full term in office.”

Cooper said he saw his mayoral tenure as two terms: a term of crisis and a term of course correction.

“My term as your mayor has been in many ways two terms. It was a term of crisis and a term of investment,“ Cooper said. ”A term to course correct and a term to move forward. A term of perseverance and a term of progress, and we have delivered.” (6:25)

Under his tenure, Cooper touted what he saw as wins, including finalizing a $1.2 billion deal with tech giant Oracle, creating a Department of Transportation for the city, and a transportation plan. He has also overseen negotiations for a major league soccer stadium and a new stadium for the Tennessee Titans.

Cooper and the state legislature have faced off in many respects during his tenure, including the loss of the Republican National Convention in 2024 and now the state legislature has filed a proposal to cut the size of Metro’s council by half.

Cooper said during his remaining time in office, he will focus on public safety, Nashville’s homelessness response, and the redevelopment of the city’s East Bank.

“We’ve accomplished so much in the last 40 months, and it’s true, there’s much to get done,” he said. “We have created a platform for the next great chapter in our city’s history.” (10:30)