For the first time, Nashville will have two openly LGBTQ councilmembers following last night’s runoff elections.
Nancy VanReece (pictured) won a seat on the Nashville Metro Council, representing District 8. She will join Brett Withers who in an earlier election gained enough votes to oust the incumbent councilmember representing District 6.
Before this year’s elections, there were three openly LGBTQ candidates in the entire state. But after last night, there are five with a possibility of a sixth, depending on the outcome of the Memphis City Council election on November 3, where Victory-endorsed candidate Charles “Chooch” Pickard is running to represent District 5.
Nancy and Brett will be the first openly LGBTQ Nashville Metro Council members since Keith Durbin, who left the Council in 2009 to take a position within the Metro government.
Nancy – a Victory endorsee – maintained her lead in the runoff after earning the most votes in the August 6 election. She ran on a platform of shifting Metro Council priorities to infrastructure, housing and education, expanding the local library and advocating for the creation of District 8’s first outdoor community space.
The 40-member Nashville Metro Council is the legislative body of the city-county government of Nashville and Davidson County, which is home to over 650,000 residents. The next Metro Council session will begin in October.