On the campaign trail: Compare Freddie O'Connell and Alice Rolli platforms at a glance

Election season in Nashville isn't over yet.

Runoff election campaigns for Freddie O'Connell and Alice Rolli — the top two contenders to become Nashville's next mayor — kicked off before the clock struck midnight on Aug. 3.

The pair, who sit at opposite ends of the political spectrum, will spar over the next six weeks to win voters' approval at the ballot box on Sept. 14.

O'Connell, a progressive Democrat and two-term District 19 Metro Council member, secured 27% of the mayoral vote. Rolli, a conservative business strategist, former educator and campaign manager, received 20% of the vote.

Conservative-leaning mayoral candidates have historically garnered enough votes to make it to a runoff election, but have struggled to secure the seat in majority blue Nashville.

Nashville mayor runoff analysis: How a Freddie O'Connell, Alice Rolli matchup may unfold

In 2015, David Fox (Rolli's campaign manager) advanced to a runoff election alongside Megan Barry, separated by less than one percentage point in the general election. Barry prevailed in the runoff with nearly 55% of the vote to Fox's 45%.

Going into a runoff election with a general election vote count seven percentage points ahead gives O'Connell an advantage for September. Rolli is presenting herself as a change from Nashville's status quo.

Here's what to know about the candidates, their platforms, their endorsements and more.

O'Connell vs. Rolli: Explore and compare candidate platforms

No fundraising time wasted

The O'Connell and Rolli campaigns wasted no time in gearing up for a runoff race: Both sent out emails featuring donation links to supporters Thursday night following the concessions of other mayoral contenders.

"Your energy powered me and this campaign from a long shot to a first-place finish," O'Connell's note states. "A Nashville for Nashvillians — and the future of our city — will depend on what we do in the next six weeks. If you can make calls, and knock doors, we need you. The road ahead will be tough, but we can win."

Rolli's note said Nashville is "too great to allow it to follow the recipe book that has failed too many great cities of higher taxes, higher crime and failing schools."

"This is the city that can welcome Republicans, Democrats and independents to set aside all labels to do what is right, to govern well by being effective and work together with our neighbors to solve our region's biggest challenges," Rolli wrote. In the lead-up to the general election, her campaign increasingly targeted the votes of conservative Nashvillians, addressing the bloc specifically in a Wednesday digital ad.

"Let's celebrate tonight, and tomorrow let's suit up to fight," she wrote Thursday.

O'Connell addressed runoff campaign fundraising in a social media post on Aug. 4: "Our support in the past 24 hours has matched some of our best fundraising months."

He raised roughly $114,200 from July 1 through July 24, bringing in another $26,500 in the days leading up to the general election, according to campaign finance reports. Last-minute contributions included $7,400 from the Tennessee Laborers' PAC, which previously donated $2,000 to O'Connell.

Rolli raised about $54,883 in the same time period, plus $4,800 from July 25 through Aug. 1. Rolli's most recently reported contributions include a combined $2,000 from Carl and Cyndi Neuhoff, $1,000 from Paul Van Housen and $1,800 from Bill Hostettler, who released an ad attacking O'Connell's transit strategies in partnership with Bobby Joslin under the name "Friends of Enoch Fuzz." Fuzz, a Nashville pastor and Civil Rights leader, said he is friends with the men but declined to be part of the ad and did not give permission for his name to be used.

Endorsements

Freddie O'Connell

Former U.S. Sen. Jim Cooper, D-Nashville, initially backed mayoral candidate state Sen. Jeff Yarbro in the 2023 election, but encouraged followers to "get behind Freddie now to make him the next mayor of Nashville" in a social media post on Aug. 4. "Only 101,000 people voted, a bigger problem than the election-day monsoon," he wrote.

Singer-songwriter Margo Price posted that she voted for O'Connell on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, on Aug. 3.

• Laborers' International Union of North America Local 386

• TIRRC Votes, an offshoot of the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition

• Amalgamated Transit Union

• Sunrise Movement Nashville

• State House District 53 Rep. Jason Powell, D-Nashville

• District 5 Metro Council member Sean Parker

• District 12 Metro Council member Erin Evans

• District 13 Metro Council member Russ Bradford

• District 14 Metro Council member Kevin Rhoten

• District 30 Metro Council member Sandra Sepulveda

• District 35 Metro Council member Dave Rosenberg

• At-large Metro Council member Bob Mendes

• Jill Speering, former MNPS board member

• Christine Lalonde, former council member

• Lynn Stinnett Williams, former council member

• David Kleinfelter, former council member

• Charlie Tygard, former council member

• Tennessee Advocates for Planned Parenthood (endorsement)

• John Bridges, author and LGBTQ advocate

• Aftyn Behn, rural progressive organizer and Tennessee House District 51 candidate

• Michele Sheriff, retired teacher and Metropolitan Nashville Education Association president, 2021-2023

• Mina Johnson, former Metro Council member and ex officio Planning Commission member

Alice Rolli

• Community Leaders for America, home of the national forum of Republican mayors and other local leaders

• Davidson County Republican Party

• David A. Fox, former school board chair, 2015 mayoral candidate, former journalist for The Tennessean, Bloomberg and co-founder of Nashville Post Co.

• J.C. Bowman, executive director & CEO of Professional Educators of Tennessee

• Joseph D. Love, Jr., artist

• Dr. Pearl Sims, former Metro Planning commissioner

• Andrew Winfield Dunn, former ECD director of international development

• Manuel A. Delgado, past recipient of East Nashville Businessman of the Year

• John D. Richardson, Tennessee Republican Party state executive committee member

• Teri Reid Fontaine, pianist and photography studio owner/manager

• Ashley Elizabeth Graham Johnson, former speechwriter and communications professional for Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn, current communications director at QuaverEd

• John Wang, small business owner and 30-year Nashville resident

• Kelly Crockett, philanthropic leader

• Ted Clayton, founder of The Clayton Collection and social leader

• Marty Luffman, historian and businessman

• Debi Tate, former Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts Director for the Tennessee Supreme Court

• Jeff Beierlein, army veteran and business leader (Beierlein ran for the District 5 U.S. House seat in 2022 but did not win the Republican primary).

Dates to know for the Sept. 14 election

• Voter registration deadline: Aug. 15

• Absentee ballot request deadline: Sept. 7

• Early Voting: Aug. 25 through Sept. 9

• Election Day: Sept. 14

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville mayoral election runoff: Compare O'Connell, Rolli platforms