2023 Nashville mayoral debate: Key moments as candidates seek to set themselves apart
Core city services and restoring Nashville's relationship with the state were key points of debate as candidates vying to lead the city as mayor sought to set themselves apart during the first of The Nashville Mayoral Debates on Thursday evening.
A crowded pool of contenders with no incumbent took swings at each other hours after the race's candidate qualifying deadline in the highest-profile debate to date. Twelve candidates qualified to be on the ballot as of Friday morning. One other petition was still undergoing verification.
Nine candidates were invited to participate in the debate based on their fundraising totals and elected positions:
Natisha Brooks, former educator
Heidi Campbell, state senator representing parts of Nashville
Jim Gingrich, former chief operating officer of AllianceBernstein
Sharon Hurt, at-large Metro Nashville Council member
Freddie O'Connell, Metro Nashville Council member representing Nashville's downtown district
Alice Rolli, business and education strategist, and campaign manager for former Sen. Lamar Alexander
Vivian Wilhoite, Davidson County assessor of property
Matt Wiltshire, former economic development director with experience in affordable housing
Jeff Yarbro, state senator representing parts of Nashville
Held at Belmont University’s Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, the debate was sponsored by The Tennessean, NewsChannel 5, Belmont University and the League of Women Voters of Nashville.
Here are some of the top moments of the debate.
More ‘ville and less Vegas
O’Connell opened by arguing that the next mayor should focus on making Nashville “more ‘ville and less Vegas.”
He criticized the city’s previous overinvestments in tourism, calling the $2.1 billion Titans stadium deal — which he worked against — “the most expensive toy for tourists we’ve ever built.” As mayor, O’Connell said he would build an efficient transit system and more affordable housing.
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Gingrich called the quandary of prioritizing residents or tourists as “a bit of a false choice,” saying that the city should balance the needs of tourists with the needs of residents.
“We need a durable tourism industry — one that is family friendly, not focused on the overconsumption of 26-year-olds,” Gingrich said.
Brooks focused on a pitch to provide free parking for residents — specifically for musicians — to help lower the costs of activities like going out to eat in the city or playing music gigs.
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Wiltshire argued the city needs to have long-term plans to address homelessness that stretch beyond each mayor’s administration but the city also needs immediate action, citing a plan to create permanent supportive housing for people coming out of homelessness that took years to break ground and is not yet complete.
“We can’t just arrest our way out of this problem,” Wiltshire said, adding that Metro should expand mental health and addiction services for the homeless. “But our parks are not campgrounds, and our sidewalks are not restrooms. We need to reclaim our public spaces so they can actually be enjoyed by the citizens of Nashville.”
Candidates generally agreed that having a comprehensive plan to address Nashville's transportation issues — from filling potholes to expanding transit options to traffic light synchronization — will be key.
“Driving to work shouldn’t feel like a daily obstacle of dodging potholes and trucks,” Yarbro said.
Rolli noted that Nashville is one of 25 cities in the country to not have a dedicated fund for transit — and the city is leaving too many state and federal dollars on the table. She committed to meet with the next U.S. president or transportation secretary “to get those federal dollars here.”
Budget and affordability
In a jab at sitting council members O’Connell and Hurt who voted to raise Nashville property taxes by 34% in 2020, Rolli argued that move damaged the city’s affordable housing availability.
“We made most of our affordable housing less affordable when we raised property taxes,” Rolli said. “We contributed to the housing costs of our older housing stock, which is by definition more affordable.”
In response, Wilhoite, who served as Nashville's Property Assessor through the hike, touted the current property tax rate as the second lowest in Davidson County history.
In forums thus far, candidates have been liberal in identifying their priorities but less specific on how they would distribute Metro’s resources to accomplish those goals.
Asked what they would cut from Nashville’s budget, Wilhoite dodged the question, focusing instead on her desire to pay Metro employees competitive wages.
Gingrich said his line-by-line approach to the budget would focus on return on investment instead of adding to what was spent in the year prior.
Hurt would redistribute funds between departments to better resource the Department of Social Services and Metro Parks, cutting any excess from other departments, listing the Metro Transit Authority as one example.
“I cannot in all honesty cut the budget,” Hurt said, saying she would prefer to redistribute funds. “We spent many years trying to get the budget in place in a good spot. We are doing well.”
On building new affordable housing units, Wilhoite said that “government cannot do it” and instead should engage in public-private partnerships to increase the affordable housing stock.
Restoring relationship with the state
A key task for the next mayor will be restoring the city's relationship with the Republican supermajority state legislature, which took particular aim at Nashville in the last year, attempting to shrink the size of the Metro Council by half, restructuring the Sports Authority and Airport Authority, barring Nashville from using excess convention center revenues to bolster its general fund and other initiatives.
“We know that the reason this relationship faltered is due to a vote against the Republican National Convention,” Willhoite said, taking a swing at sitting council members who voted on the issue last year.
Asked how they would restore the city’s relationship with the GOP-led state, candidates when possible touted their experiences working with the state, and several argued that the city should work to strengthen relationships with surrounding city and county leadership.
“If we’re going to solve problems, for example, regional transit — we need a much stronger relationship than we have today with the surrounding counties and mayors,” Gingrich said, adding that Nashville should draw the state into that collaboration.
O’Connell said that in addition to building a regional coalition, the next mayor should make better use of the city’s leverage as a major economic driver, while continuing to invest in meaningful relationships with state leaders. He said he’s met with senior advisors to Gov. Bill Lee, as well as Lt. Gov. McNally and House Speaker Cameron Sexton.
“We’ve backed away from our former approach to regionalism,” O’Connell said. “We have a mayor’s caucus. I want our Nashville mayor to be deeply invested in that.”
Rolli touted her existing relationships with state officials, and her previous work at the state's Department of Economic and Community Development, saying she’s gone hunting with Sen. Frank Niceley, of Strawberry Plains, and served chili with Sen. Ken Yager.
“The first act is taking the ego out of it,” Rolli said. “I actually believe that you can love Nashville and love Tennessee.”
Brooks did not share any details but recognized the need to do something.
“I need the council – WO – to work with the legislature – RK – put it together, work together,” Brooks said. “I’d rather eat a bowl of soup with a friend than a steak with an enemy. Let’s not make enemies of each other.”
Yarbro and Campbell both touted their bona fides working across the aisle as state senators and fighting legislation pushed by the Republican supermajority directly targeting Nashville.
Campbell described the state's legislation impacting the LGBTQ community and women's rights as part of a "relentless march toward authoritarianism."
"Even though the mayor does not necessarily influence the policy decisions, the bully pulpit is absolutely something that we have to employ to make sure that we make people know that's not OK," she said.
Wiltshire spoke about his working relationship with the Tennessee Housing Development Agency.
“A number of the folks on the stage have been involved in the political food fight over the last decades,” Wiltshire said. “They've been the ones throwing the spears back and forth. Over the last decade, I've been in the executive branch, getting things done.”
Overall, the candidates said that it’s a tough — but crucial — undertaking.
“Anybody who tells you they’ve figured it out is either bad at it or lying,” O’Connell said.
Rolli also took a swing at current city leaders — including several candidates on the stage — for dragging Nashville into national issues.
“We need to get out of the business of nationalizing city hall,” Rolli said. “In my city hall, we will not have a pro-life rally, and we will not have a pro-choice rally. We will be completely focused on a pro-first graders reading rally, and pro-filling the potholes and pro-fixing our debt. That is the job of the city.”
Quick hits
Contrasting with other candidates who noted their campaign website addresses or social media handles, Campbell kicked off the evening by giving out her personal cell phone number and asking voters to get in touch with her directly to share their ideas and priorities.
Wilhoite stumbled in her opening remarks, misstating the name of one of her sons, but she hit her stride later in the forum. She acknowledged the flub later in the debate while speaking about her commitment to standing with members of the LGBTQ community as they are targeted by state legislation. "I fumbled some other questions tonight, but ... as mayor ... I will use my voice to protect and to speak out."
In one of the evening’s boldest pivots, Wiltshire said a topic Nashvillians aren’t talking about enough is his executive leadership experience. Gingrich countered it’s his executive leadership experience that should be the topic of more conversation.
Brooks made her experiences as a teacher a recurring theme of her arguments, saying voters should “send a real executor to the mayor’s office: a teacher.”
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Key moments as Nashville mayoral candidates debate in 2023 race
