It was no coincidence that Joy Styles hosted the first rally of her 2027 mayoral campaign in the heart of Antioch’s booming Century Farms development, inside the newly opened Drury Plaza Hotel.
The area, Styles told a room filled with several dozen supporters Oct. 8, has transformed into a drastically different place in the seven years she’s represented part of Antioch in District 32 on the Metro Nashville Council.
Anchored in part by Tanger Outlets, the Century Farms development just off Interstate 24 has become the home base for Nashville SC and the place where buzzy chains like West Coast burger chain In-N-Out and Tiger Woods’ golf entertainment complex PopStroke have elected to lay down their roots as they enter the Nashville market.
“But the
whole city deserves this attention,” Styles said. “There are other parts of town that are not getting investment.”
It’s the latest sign that Nashville’s 2027 mayoral race is shifting into second gear, after incumbent Mayor Freddie O’Connell launched his reelection bid with a kickoff event of his own earlier this summer.
O’Connell and Styles are, to date, the most high-profile candidates to have entered the race so far, with others like neighborhood activist Lou Wilbanks, former Republican New York State Assembly candidate Sandra Magnano and 2023 mayoral candidate Natisha Brooks also having signaled a run.
If you’re feeling a sense of déjà vu about Styles’ event at Century Farms, that’s because her campaign kickoff event came nearly 10 months after she first announced her intent to run for the office on Jan. 20.
In the time since then, Styles said, she’s been talking to Nashvillians around the county, trying to better understand their frustrations.
“Everybody deserves an opportunity to feel what we feel out here, the revitalization,” Styles said. “When I say this, and what I’d like to do for the entire city, (is) the marriage of the old and the new, the community that already exists with the people that are moving in.”
Styles laid out some of the platform she’s developed for her campaign: pursuing child care reform, supporting the arts and strengthening government accountability, in that case pointing to the work of her and the council's Women’s Caucus to probe allegations of a toxic workplace culture inside the Davidson County Department of Emergency Communications, which eventually resulted in the firing of former director Steve Martini.
Styles also signaled that she’s been working to develop relationships to mitigate Nashville’s often fraught tension with state lawmakers, a factor that was also top of mind at O’Connell’s campaign kickoff earlier in the summer.
And, Styles reminded the room, her election would make her Nashville’s first Black mayor and only the second woman to hold the office after Megan Barry.
“I would love to be your mayor next year,” Styles said. “We would make history.”
Austin Hornbostel is the Metro reporter for The Tennessean. Have a question about local government you want an answer to? Reach him at ahornbostel@tennessean.com.
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This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Joy Styles kicks off mayoral bid with pitch for citywide revitalization
