Left-Wing Chattanooga Activist Loses City Council Race By 70 Votes

Image Credit: Imilious / CC

The Tennessee Conservative [By Jason Vaughn] –

Yesterday, District 8 voters in Chattanooga decided whether activist Marie Mott or Marvene Noel should represent them on the Chattanooga City Council.

In the earlier race, Mott received the most votes of the three candidates with Noel coming in second and Malarie Marsh coming in at third.

However, Mott did not receive 50% of the total vote, so a runoff election became necessary.

In yesterday’s runoff election, the final vote count came in with Noel receiving 400 votes and Mott receiving 330.

Mayor Tim Kelly endorsed Marvene Noel, who has been serving as the interim councilperson after Anthony Byrd stepped down to become City Court clerk.

Councilman Ken Smith spoke out against Mott’s candidacy, saying she was the leader in a “terrifying” protest outside his Hixson home.

Mott, who prior to running for City Council, was an activist and protest leader has been a frequent speaker at City Council meetings and has made the news repeatedly recently.

In a routine traffic stop on Sunday, Chattanooga police pulled over Mott due to a front passenger headlight not working on her vehicle. Mott replied by cursing at police officers and claiming racism.

When asked for the standard documents required of anyone when pulled over by police (license, registration, proof of insurance), Mott “became agitated and aggressive” according to the officer on the scene.

Mott told police that the traffic violation was not a valid reason to be pulled over and that it was not a crime.

According to police cam footage, Mott provided her driver’s license, but refused to hand over her registration and proof of insurance, stating that police did not need it.

Mott began yelling and cursing at the police officer, claiming they had only pulled her over because “she was black.”

Mott continued to yell, argue and make claims the police were being racist several more times throughout the stop.

Chattanooga Police cited Mott for a light law violation, failure to provide proof of insurance and improper display of her license tag as the expiration date was covered by a license plate frame/border.

Mott protested but eventually did sign for the citations.

Video of the police stop HERE.

Roughly one week ago, an anonymous Vimeo channel called “Mott Speaks” posted a video with the title “Marie Mott speaks about Jewish Chattanoogans and their role in slavery.”

In the video snippet, Mott stated that Jewish people took up arms with “traitors” to defend slavery. She asked, “When are we going to deal with it?”

In the full 30-minute video on Twitter, Mott stated that Jews owned slaves and overwhelmingly joined the Confederacy during the Civil War.

The liberal group, ChangeTN, responded by withdrawing their endorsement of Mott saying, “we do not condone the language used in the video, but understand the historical facts she presents well. While no human is perfect, and we are all prone to mistakes, misinformed and out of context comments designed to single out minority groups is never acceptable in our Tennessee.”

The video also prompted a letter of condemnation against Mott’s comments by members of Chattanooga’s Jewish community that was signed by 32 people, including three rabbis.

About the Author: Jason Vaughn, Media Coordinator for The Tennessee Conservative  ~ Jason previously worked for a legacy publishing company based in Crossville, TN in a variety of roles through his career.  Most recently, he served as Deputy Director for their flagship publication. Prior, he was a freelance journalist writing articles that appeared in the Herald Citizen, the Crossville Chronicle and The Oracle among others.  He graduated from Tennessee Technological University with a Bachelor’s in English-Journalism, with minors in Broadcast Journalism and History.  Contact Jason at news@TennesseeConservativeNews.com