Jim Gingrich has endorsed Freddie O’Connell in the mayoral race against Alice Rolli.
“In bringing AllianceBernstein to Nashville, I built relationships with a number of council members, chief among them being Freddie O’Connell,” Gingrich wrote in an Instagram post. “This past year, Freddie and I shared Nashville’s largest stage in a race to be Nashville’s next mayor. Those who watched any of our mayoral forums know that Freddie and I are not 100 percent ideologically aligned, and we disagree on a number of issues. But more importantly, we both agree and believe that our city government needs to work better and more efficiently, and we need leadership that prioritizes those that call Nashville home.”
The retired AllianceBernstein COO dropped out of the mayor’s race in July after spending $2.5 million of his own money on the race. During his campaign, he presented voters with an alternative option to the field, casting himself as an outsider and businessman in a crop of “political insiders.” At times, his messaging almost aligned with that of Alice Rolli’s, encouraging voters to stray away from putting another mayor in office who would be “more of the same.” But in the end, his endorsement went to O’Connell.
At many of the mayoral forums throughout the election season, Gingrich and O’Connell represented the only voices on stage opposed to the Titan’s stadium deal. Gingrich was a registered Republican in New York, and much of his rhetoric was fiscally conservative, but he was also a member of a group of business leaders in Nashville who spoke out against anti-LGBT legislation coming from the state legislature.
Despite dropping out, Gingrich received 1.65 percent of the vote in the general election.