Davidson County Election Commission Names Republican John Richardson Next Elections Administrator

Image Credit: Martin B. Cherry / Nashville Banner

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by Stephen Elliott, [The Nashville Banner, Creative Commons] –

The Davidson County Election Commission voted 4-0 on Monday to name John Richardson the next administrator of elections for Nashville.

Richardson, a financial planner and former seasonal Nashville elections officer, was until last week an active member of the Tennessee Republican Party Executive Committee, a partisan position that gave pause to some commissioners concerned about his ability to run Nashville elections fairly. 

Those concerns contributed to the election commission — a five-member board controlled by a Republican majority due to state law — deadlocking at a meeting earlier this month and reopening the application period for the job. But commissioners were satisfied in part by Richardson’s decision last week to resign from the state GOP leadership body. (In the days since his initial interview, Richardson also submitted letters of recommendation from Democrats, including former Metro Councilmember Fabian Bedne). 

Pressed by Commissioner Kenny Byrd, one of the two Democratic appointees to the board, at the Monday meeting, Richardson confirmed that he believed Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election and is ineligible to run for reelection in 2028. 

“My faith guides me in all that I do,” Richardson said, adding that he also follows the oaths of Scouting America and would model his leadership on that of Ted Lasso, the fictional television soccer coach. 

In addition to his multi-year service on the Tennessee GOP state committee, Richardson was an alternate delegate to the 2024 Republican National Convention, at which the party adopted a platform calling to “STOP THE MIGRANT CRIME EPIDEMIC,” “MAKE OUR COLLEGE CAMPUSES SAFE AND PATRIOTIC AGAIN” and institute Election Day-only voting. Richardson also lists on an online biography a stint as a motorcade driver for national Republican “VIP Guests” during Vice President J.D. Vance’s fundraising trip to Nashville earlier this year, and another helping guide the biennial reorganization of the Davidson County Republican Party. 

Despite those recent partisan roles, Richardson said, “I don’t identify with one political party or another” and said he is “just over” partisan politics. 

Byrd said he was “impressed” that Richardson had resigned from the Republican committee and joined the Republican appointees in supporting his appointment to the job. (Jenean Davis, the second Democratic appointee, was sick and absent.) Will Burns, a Republican appointee and the chair of the commission, also expressed earlier concern about Richardson’s role on the party committee but supported his appointment on Monday. 

“We passed up some good opportunities,” Byrd said of his favored candidates, including longtime international elections adviser David Hamilton. “That’s unfortunate. … Part of our job is to be the oversight. We will be that.”

Retiring elections administrator Jeff Roberts will remain on the job through the end of the year as Richardson learns on the job. Commissioners suggested retaining Roberts as a consultant after he retires.