December 14, 2021 Chris Butler

Members of Davidson County’s Republican and Democratic parties have requested primaries in May 2022 for the Metro Nashville School Board elections.

The primary is scheduled for May of next year.

Davidson County GOP Chair James Garrett and Davidson County Democratic Chair Tara Houston requested these actions late last week. This, according to Nashville Election Administrator Jeff Roberts, who relayed the news Monday.

Garrett said he and other members of his Republican organization have specific people in mind to declare their candidacies for school board under the Republican ticket.

“The last I heard we have two candidates in three of the four districts and one candidate in the fourth district,” Garrett told The Tennessee Star on Monday.

“I cannot tell you who they are yet. We haven’t got a strategy yet. We are looking at several things.”

Members of the Davidson County Democratic Party did not return The Star’s requests for comment before Monday’s stated deadline.

In November, a bill that would allow Tennessee counties to decide if school board elections are partisan passed both chambers of the state’s general assembly. State Representative Scott Cepicky (R-Culleoka) filed the legislation during the Tennessee General Assembly’s recent special session.

The Tennessee General Assembly’s website said the new law will have no significant fiscal impact on taxpayers.

Davidson County tends to favor Democrats, but Garrett said Monday that, when it comes to this school board election, Republicans can convince more county voters than usual to pivot right.

“I think the population as a whole is upset with what is happening in our education system,” Garrett said.

“There are enough Democrats upset that if you get to the corner of the issue and the issues are correct then we will see a significant number of people cross over to vote for that. This school board election will be the key election in 2022, in my opinion.”

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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to chrisbutlerjournalist@gmail.com.

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