(The Center Square) – Only 12% of Nashville residents polled said the Tennessee General Assembly represented their views and only 17% said the Gov. Bill Lee does.
The 2025 Vanderbilt Poll–Nashville released Friday shows better numbers for Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell who has a 67% approval rating after 18 months in office.
The survey of 1,008 respondents was taken between Feb. 21 through March 16.
Fifty-eight percent of those polled feel like Nashville is on the right track, up from 53% in last year’s survey. Among Republicans, 48% agreed, according to the poll results.
“The five-point jump we saw from a year ago when Nashville voters stated that they feel the city is on the right track stands in stark contrast with what the country thinks about America,” said Vanderbilt Poll codirector Josh Clinton, who holds the Abby and Jon Winkelried Chair at Vanderbilt and is a professor of political science. “In this era of discontent and polarization, it’s encouraging to see a different story playing out here in Nashville.”
Nashville residents have less favorable views of the state, with 54% saying that Nashville’s elected officials should challenge the state legislature’s and governor’s actions.
“We found that Nashville residents, regardless of partisan stripe, are more willing to go to battle with the state legislature,” Clinton said. “A majority of Republicans (76%) and independents (49%) continue to think Nashville should focus on working with the state rather than challenging the state, but all partisan groups express slightly more support for challenging the state on issues involving Nashville.”
Support for the state’s school choice program passed by lawmakers in January drew a mixed response, with 20% of respondents strongly supporting them and 36% strongly opposing them. The remaining 44% fell in the middle, according to poll results.
As for the economy, residents who made more than $100,000 had a more favorable view of the economy than those who made $15,000–$29,999. One of the main concerns is affordable housing.
“The public is increasingly worried about making sure that we, as a community, are taking care of the less fortunate. That concern comes in the form of pushing for more affordable housing. There seems to be genuine concern for our neighbors,” said John Geer, codirector of the Vanderbilt Poll, senior advisor to Chancellor Daniel Diermeier, professor of political science and holder of a Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair.
Democrats and Republicans had different views on federal deportation efforts, with 62% of Democrats saying the city should resist and 61% of Republicans saying the city should assist the federal government, according to the poll. Republicans showed strong support, 86%, for deporting people not in the country legally with a criminal record, while 46% of Democrats supported it.
