Carol Swain and Ralph Bristol Vie for Nashville’s Conservative Vote

Is this a conservative moment for Nashville?

Fresh on the heels of an expensive transit plan’s defeat, at least two candidates on the May 24 ballot for mayor define themselves to the right of where most Nashvillians have generally voted.

The first is Carol Swain, a retired Vanderbilt professor and pundit who gained notoriety with a series of provocative opinion pieces in the past few years, including one that claimed Islam “poses an absolute danger to us and our children unless it is monitored better.” Other Swain editorials have been criticized as homophobic, and before her retirement, LGBT students petitioned Vanderbilt to suspend her. Swain claims the pressure was coming from forces outside the school.

Outside a crowded coffeehouse and taproom on Eighth Avenue, Swain details her reasons for running: She thinks Metro government is rife with corruption, the transit plan and its taxes went too far, and only an outsider can fix these problems. She favors a cost-of-living raise for Metro employees and would launch a strategic task force to look at how to fix General Hospital. Asked specifically if she would support the monitoring of Islamic organizations as mayor, Swain says that is a federal concern, not a local one. As the Trump administration pushes for local law enforcement to check the immigration status of people they encounter, Swain states that under her administration, MNPD would “follow the law.” And she says her three decades studying government make her qualified to hold office.

A woman leans out her window and yells, “I’m voting for you!”

Swain smiles and says thank you. If yard signs are an indication, she may be a competitive candidate. She’s raised more than $100,000 on her way to a goal of $150,000, she says. Swain was considering a run next year, but filed at the last minute after encouragement from supporters. 

Meanwhile, another May 24 candidate, retired radio host Ralph Bristol, says: “If you’ve been a talk-show host for 20 years and haven’t thought about running for office, you’re not very good at it.” As the former host of the go-to talk show for right-leaning politicians in Nashville, Bristol has been in the middle of many of the city and state’s biggest debates, although he clarifies that he’s much more of a libertarian than anything else. 

Bristol’s big idea is almost radio-show-like in nature: To increase the transparency he believes is missing from city government, Bristol would conduct an open office, allowing anyone to see how the sausage is made in government.

“Nashville is a very diverse city, both politically and every other way,” Bristol says. “And if you don’t respect and listen to all of those voices of stakeholders before a decision is made, you get the same kind of bad decisions that we’ve been seeing over and over and over.”

It is perhaps that spirit of evaluating all ideas — perhaps regardless of their merit — that got Bristol in trouble recently at a mayoral forum sponsored by Fox 17 news. When asked about racial profiling by police, Bristol wouldn’t rule it out, saying, “Profiling is absolutely necessary — sometimes race might play some part in that.” The statement was met with audible gasps from the mostly African-American audience.

Like Swain, Bristol believes his time observing government, rather than running it, is a feature, not a bug. He says he and Swain have the best chance of making a runoff against front-runner David Briley.