Metro Councilmember Brandon Taylor is facing a second-term challenge from Jamel Campbell-Gooch, a local organizer and activist. District 21 covers North Nashville from Centennial Park up to Clay Street, including major commercial centers on Buchanan Street and Jefferson Street and around Tennessee State University.
Campbell-Gooch proudly identifies as a lifelong North Nashville resident who’s witnessed both the strength and beauty of North Nashville and the systemic ills that made 37208 the most incarcerated ZIP code in America. For years he has been speaking his politics, reflected in the platforms of politically aligned groups like the People’s Budget Coalition and the Black Nashville Assembly, which he founded and where he organizes. He is an uncompromising critic of the police and the carceral state and has told voters that, if elected, he will work for large-scale change by investing in public goods and services while divesting the city from prisons, surveillance and aggressive law enforcement.Â
“For the past four years, there’s been a gap growing between the people and some of the elected officials,” Campbell-Gooch told councilmembers during a June 2 public hearing on the 2024 budget. “Communities are safe when we have investment in public goods. And when working-class people have the say-so over a continuously ballooning budget.”
While Campbell-Gooch has legitimate concerns with the priorities of Nashville’s ruling elite, it’s hard for him to pin the same criticisms on his immediate opponent, the incumbent Taylor. As much as Campbell-Gooch has shown his ambition and vision — he is a charismatic presence and gifted speaker with established, devoted support thanks to the reach of the Black Nashville Assembly — Taylor has spent his first four years tackling the practical problems facing residents in the historic heart of the city’s Black community.
“When we talk about gentrification and the rising cost of living, those things bubble up from the things we do on the ground,” Taylor tells the Scene. “Every decision we make about planning, zoning, building — I try to think how that fits into smart growth or how it will change the neighborhood years down the road.”
Taylor says the top concerns in District 21 are crime, illegal dumping, traffic and speeding — basic quality-of-life issues shared by residents in any corner of Davidson County.Â
“People want clean, safe, healthy and vibrant communities where they don’t have a long drive to a grocery store,” Taylor says. “They want sidewalks, accessible public transportation. Clean water and good water pressure and toilets that flush. My job is to bring that up in the right places — not all places — directly with the people who can make a difference, not always on the council floor.”
In perhaps the most radical political act of his first term, Taylor tried to amend the Titans’ deal to secure tax revenue for the city’s general fund as the deal’s terms moved through council in April. With public opinion shifting against the deal, the legislative maneuver — referred to in council lore as the “Taylor Amendment” — was perhaps the most significant council effort to change the terms of the deal and earned Taylor favor among Campbell-Gooch’s comrades on the activist left.
“There’s going to be a windfall for this city when the stadium comes through — it’s going to make money,” Taylor told colleagues. “We’re asking for this to go to the general fund so all 35 district councilmembers can get more. It doesn’t give us a whole lot more, but it gives us a little, so we can go back to our constituencies and say that we’re getting something out of this deal.”
The amendment passed that night, but was killed the following meeting with a Titans-friendly alternative.
All 40 Metro Council seats are up for election, and early voting begins in one month
