NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Alice Rolli and Freddie O'Connell are vying for your vote next Thursday in Metro's Mayoral runoff election. You may know where they stand on the big issues — but what else?
Where did they grow up, go to school and what path led them to public service and politics? I asked both to meet for a more personal conversation and let them choose the location.
On Wednesday, I shared my discussion with Alice at Fort Negley. Now, it's Freddie's turn. He asked to meet recently for breakfast at Big Al's Deli in Salemtown.
Why there?
“It's funny, going back to 2015, we did one of our first fundraisers here,” O’Connell explained.
That was for his first campaign to represent District 19 on the Metro Council. But he says this popular eatery in Salemtown — just a short walk from the O'Connell home — isn't about politics. It's about family.
"Al has literally on multiple occasions fed our family," he said. "When we had to way back when, when our older daughter was much younger, we had a snowstorm that caused us to cancel flights for three days in a row to try to go up to visit my brother. And it was around her birthday, and she was pretty upset because our whole vacation to see her cousin we had to cancel it. And during that time Al, because he lives next door, would keep Big Al's open so we did a little impromptu birthday party here for her."
O'Connell, his wife and two daughters have lived in the ever-transforming neighborhood north of downtown for 16 years. But he grew up about five miles southwest in the Hillsboro-West End area.
"You know, the Nashville of my growing up — it had some relics in good ways and also bad ways. I grew up going to Fair Park, which the Fairgrounds has changed a lot in 40 years. Opryland was still a theme park here. The Nashville of that long ago was relatively easy to live in. It was not particularly expensive,” he said.
O'Connell's dad worked for the federal government. His mom was a local school teacher. Like his opponent Alice Rolli, O'Connell chose to spread his wings a bit after high school and head out of state attending Brown University in Rhode Island. He eventually came home and worked in the private sector focused on computer and information technology.
Always a willing volunteer, O'Connell got involved with a number of neighborhood groups and nonprofits. That's when he decided to jump into politics now in his second two terms as a Metro Council member. In the spring of 2022, he was the first to throw his hat in the ring for mayor.
"I'll say the first time I really thought about it was when we were sitting in a Metro Council meeting just before Christmas a couple of years ago, and they announced that, 'Hey, we're gonna stop picking up recycling altogether,'” O’Connell said.
"It just startled me a little that it was like wait: we're just stopping? Surely we can do better than this,” he said.
The next step was sharing the idea with his family.
“The most important conversation was the one with constituent prime,” he said. "That conversation was basically me, sitting with Whitney [his wife] on our couch for a couple of hours, rattling off all the list of reasons why she should not want me to do this," he said.
But his family was on board. O’Connell said his wife told him that resources and timing for their lives were right. She told him to do it.
O'Connell is focused on key issues — like education, safety, and transit. But he told me his top priority has been balancing a rigorous campaign schedule with family life.
"Here as we've gotten into the intense moments of the campaign, there are definitely more nights where I'm not home for both dinner and sometimes bedtime,” he admitted. But he tells me his daughters are excited about the potential of "daddy" becoming mayor.
After months on the campaign trail, O’Connell insists he’s still just a regular person — with friends and family keeping him grounded.
"I will receive it as a compliment," O’Connell told me with a smile. “But one of my friends at some point last year said, 'You know the best part about you being mayor? You're just a guy.'”
On Wednesday, our sit-down conversation with Alice Rolli aired on NewsChannel 5, you can find the story here.
