Ep. 19: Part I Re-Release (Freddie O'Connell), The Contest for Music City’s Next Mayor: Ready for Freddie, or Mayor Rolli?

Climbing the Charts with Angie Lawless and Brandon Miller

Early voting begins 20 days before an election and typically ends 5 days before Election Day. Translated to the current election for Nashville Mayor and other local runoff elections, that means early voting started August 25th and will run until September 9th, with Election Day being September 14th.

In the general election, which took place on Thursday, August 3rd, 101,245 votes were cast. Councilmember O’Connell garnered 27,470 votes, or 27.13%, while Alice Rolli placed 2nd with 17,186 votes, which was good for 20.21% of the total vote. But, with no candidate earning more than 50% + 1 of the total votes cast, Nashville now heads to a runoff election to decide who will become Music City’s 10th mayor (since the consolidation of the Metro Government in 1963!).

Both Alice Rolli and Freddie O’Connell joined Climbing the Charts as mayoral candidates – Freddie in October 2022 (when the field was small and many assumed Mayor Cooper would seek a second term and would be a formidable incumbent), and then Alice in April 2023 (after the field had greatly expanded after Mayor Cooper announced he would NOT seek a second term) - and were some of our most memorable guests on Season 1 and Season 2 of the show. With a new introduction to frame the race, Climbing the Charts is now re-releasing those episodes as Nashville goes to the polls to elect a new mayor!

The stakes are high, and we believe these long-form interviews present one of the very best ways to access the thoughts, beliefs, decision-making qualities, and personalities of these two very smart, highly educated, and dynamic leaders that are now seeking to become Music City’s next mayor.