Economic development, housing official Wiltshire announces Nashville mayoral campaign

Matt Wiltshire, former Nashville director of economic and community development, announced his plans to run for Nashville Mayor on Thursday morning. 

“We need a long-term vision to tackle our biggest challenges, and we need city services like trash pickup and pothole repair to work right now,” Wiltshire said. “I have heard from people across the county on their concerns about the cost of living, the strains of growth on our infrastructure and transit, education, and public safety.”

Wiltshire is the second candidate to formally announce a challenge to incumbent Mayor John Cooper, who is expected to run for a second term but has made no public announcement about his plans. Freddie O’Connell, a second term member of Metro Council, announced his candidacy in April. 

Wiltshire has spent the last three years working on affordable housing at the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency (MDHA), Nashville’s public housing authority. He previously served as the Director of the Mayor’s Office of Economic and Community Development for eight years under three mayors. 

According to a release from Wiltshire’s campaign, he has noted housing attainability as an increasing issue and worked to move to the city’s housing authority to develop more affordable housing through public-private partnerships.  

Amazon recently announced that it will invest more than $7 million as a part of the latest mixed-income redevelopment project at Cayce Homes, one of the last projects Wiltshire handled as the Chief Strategy Officer at MDHA.

A native of Nashville and graduate of Nashville’s Hume Fogg High School and Dartmouth College, Wiltshire and his wife have six children. 

He has served on the boards of Hands On Nashville, which offers volunteer opportunities in support of more than 200 Nashville organizations, and the Tennessee Justice Center which works to ensure all Tennesseans have access to affordable health care coverage. 

The election will be held in August 2023.