WINNERS AND LOSERS
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CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONS
NOVEMBER 14, 2024 | VOLUME 36 | NUMBER 45
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Transit referendum passes
Voters give mayor’s $3.1 billion plan the green light ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ
President-Elect Donald Trump in Nashville earlier this year
PHOTO: HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS
Trump wins Tennessee’s 11 electoral votes Volunteer State goes to Trump for third presidential election in a row LOGAN BUTTS, NICOLLE S. PRAINO Former President Donald Trump won Tennessee’s 11 electoral votes as part of his march to a second stint in office. Following his loss to President Joe Biden in 2020, Trump is set to return to the White House following a victory over U.S. Vice President and Democratic Party nominee Kamala Harris. Trump once again won Tennessee with ease in his third bid for the presidency. He actually gained three percentage points in
the state, earning 64 percent of the vote compared to 34 percent for Harris. Trump won the general election in Tennessee with 61 percent of the vote in both 2020 and 2016. With more than 95 percent of votes tabulated, Trump has garnered more than 1.9 million votes, an improvement on the 1.85 million individual votes cast in his favor during 2020. In Davidson County, Harris won with 63 percent of the vote, compared to 35 percent
for Trump. It was one of only two counties in the state, alongside Shelby County in West Tennessee, that voted in favor of Harris. 62 percent of Shelby County voters selected Harris. With the majority of votes calculated, Trump has been awarded 312 electoral college votes and will take office as the 47th president of the United States in January.
Nashville voters have cast their ballots in favor of a new transit plan designed to improve buses, upgrade traffic lights, build sidewalks and more with an overwhelming 65.5 percent of votes for the measure. “There have been people carrying the torch for this conversation for such a long time,” Mayor Freddie O’Connell told his supporters at co-working space The Malin in the Gulch. “We all came together for the past couple months to do something good, big, important and popular.” The plan calls for $3.1 billion in spending over the next 15 years. Funds would go to improvements to the public WeGo bus system, constructing sidewalks, upgrading traffic lights and more. The “Choose How You Move” plan will be funded by a half-cent increase to the sales tax. The mayor and transit advocates say having a dedicated funding source will help Nashville apply for and receive federal grants for transportation improvements in the future. Since O’Connell unveiled the plan in April, the transit referendum enjoyed broad support, including from local business leaders and community advocates like the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition. The campaign in favor of the transit overhaul raised more than $2 million. Opponents to the plan never mounted a concerted or well-funded campaign. Some local conservatives banded together, and some locals criticized the reliance on a regressive sales tax to fund the plan — saying it placed more burden on poorer Nashvillians — but these efforts were grassroot and disjointed. While the Kochfunded Americans for Prosperity played a part in killing a 2018 transit referendum — which, unlike “Choose How You Move,” included plans for >> PAGE 2
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