Nashville education politics overhauled

Nashville will hold partisan school board elections in 2022 after the county Republican and Democratic parties voted last week to hold primaries.

• The Democrats conditionally voted to hold a primary only if the Republican Party did the same. Republicans kept their vote secret until the 11th hour by alerting the Election Commission late Friday afternoon.
• Democrats feared that if they voted not to hold primaries, the left-leaning candidates would be forced to run as independents and split the votes, while conservatives could coalesce behind the identified Republican primary winner.

Why it matters: Democrats will enter the elections as heavy favorites. Nashville councilmember and political data analyst Dave Rosenberg tweeted Friday that the newly drawn school board districts lean heavily Democratic.

• The least favorable district, John Little's District 4, leans +9 for Democrats, per Rosenberg.
• In addition to Little, school board members Rachael Anne Elrod, Fran Bush, and Gini Pupo-Walker are up for reelection in 2022.
• All nine current board members are likely to run as Democrats.