A Running List of People Who Say They’re Not Running for Mayor Next Year

The 2019 mayoral election is less than a year away, and no matter what, it's going to look a lot different than anyone thought it would a year ago. Megan Barry's resignation earlier this year turned Nashville politics upside-down, landing David Briley in the mayor's office and changing the calculations of a number of potential mayoral candidates. 

Although several candidates jumped into this year's special mayoral election, Briley won easily. Now he has to do it again.

Briley has confirmed he will run for re-election next year, but the question is whether he'll face a legitimate challenge.

After Pith got a tip that Conexión Américas co-founder and Megan Barry pal Renata Soto was considering a run against Briley, she told us, "I'm not running for mayor." (And no, the tip was not from Pith's Megan Seling, who suggested earlier this year that Soto should run.)

A few days after we spoke with Soto, someone anonymously registered the URL sotoformayor.com. She told Pith the domain was not registered by her or anyone she had spoken with.

Soto and Briley had lunch on Aug. 20. So we asked: Was the purpose to discuss a potential Soto challenge? "I can assure you I'm not running for mayor,” she replied, not quite answering the question. Briley spokesperson Judith Byrd said “the mayor has lunches with many people — pretty much every day — with a focus on staying connected with community leaders.”

At-Large Metro Councilmember Bob Mendes is another potential mayoral candidate who says he’s not running next year. He has not been shy about criticizing some of Briley’s moves, and yet …

"I’m not going to run for mayor in 2019,” he tells Pith. “My kids are in high school now, and I don’t want to miss their last few years at home.”

He does, however, have ideas about what kind of candidate he would support next year.

“We Nashvillians are an optimistic bunch, and for good reason,” says Mendes. “But we need a dose of honesty injected into our politics — honesty about inequalities that hold us back and honesty about deals that move Nashville forward. I’ll be looking for a candidate who believes in a better Nashville and who believes that citizens truly are partners in government. Partial truths and con jobs need to end."

Candidates for the August 2019 elections can’t pick up petitions to run until February, but if you aren't running for mayor, please let us know! Email selliott@fwpublishing.com and shale@nashvillescene.com.