One Clear Winner And Eight Still In Runoff For Metro At-Large Seats

The highly competitive race for the at-large seats on the Metro Council will have a runoff with eight candidates.

Only current At-Large Councilman Bob Mendes was able to secure the 10% of the vote necessary to win outright.

Several other candidates came close, but in a crowded field of 15, it was hard to break the threshold. See the vote totals below, or explore them at Nashville.gov/vote.

The remaining four seats will be decided in a runoff of the top eight candidates: Zulfat Suara, current Councilwoman Sharon Hurt, current Councilwoman Sheri Weiner, current Councilwoman Burkley Allen, current Councilman Fabian Bedne, Howard Jones, current Councilman Steve Glover, and Gary Moore.

Nashville voters told WPLN they often had criteria for deciding which candidates to choose. Julie McCargar is a retired school administrator who lives in the Knob Hill area, and she said she was looking for activists.

“I also tended towards people that would support our new American community — i.e. immigrant community — and had some kind of history in that direction,” she said.

At the polls Thursday, Nashville native Ray Crabtree said he voted for more diversity on the council.

“I wanted some folks that I felt like would bring maybe a different perspective to the council. It’s easy to get locked into that good ol’ boy network, and I think to bring some difference faces and some different voices into the council was sort of what I was looking for,” he said.

Two immigrants, Suara and Bedne, made the cut for the runoff, along with six other candidates who are mostly current district council members.

Emily Siner contributed to this report.