Delishia Porterfield defeated Nicola La Mattina to win the Nashville Metro Council’s District 29 seat in a special runoff election on March 19, 2019, by 25 votes. Porterfield received 561 votes compared to La Mattina’s 536, according to unofficial election night totals.
The two candidates had advanced from a four-candidate field in the special general election on February 12. In that race, Porterfield had led the field with 402 votes to La Mattina’s 376. The other two candidates, Constance Smith-Burwell and Vicky Tataryn, received 74 and 58 votes, respectively. The special election was called after Karen Johnson, the former District 29 council member, won election in November 2018 to become the new Davidson County Register of Deeds.
The District 29 seat is also up for regular election in 2019, along with all 40 other seats on the Metro Council as well as the mayor’s office. The filing deadline is May 16, the general election is August 1, and a runoff election may be held on a currently unknown date in September if no candidate receives a simple majority of the general election vote. Mayor David Briley was first elected to the office in a May 2018 special election; he announced his plan to run for a full term in September 2018.
Nashville is the second-largest city in Tennessee and the 24th-largest city in the U.S. by population.