Knoxville City Council candidates announced ahead of August election
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — Most of the Knoxville's City Council seats to represent designated districts are up for grabs in August with no incumbent council members on the ballot. The election is also the first local election that will be impacted by the failure of Amendment 2 in the November 2024 election.
For the August 26, 2025 election, there are 19 candidates running to represent Districts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6. The candidates for each district are:
Karyn Adams
Lindsey Jaremko
Becky Jones
Charles Van Morgan
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Nathan Honeycutt
Melody Watts
Nick Ciparro
Ivan Harmon
Doug Lloyd
Drank Ramey
Matthew DeBardelaben
Jane George
Jeff Talman
Sam Brown
Charles Grazier
Denzel Grant
Stan Johnson
George J. 'Cat Dad' Raudenbush III
Lawrench 'Man' Williams
Notably, the 5th District City Council seat is not up for reelection, although it was the center of Amendment 1 in November. The amendment, which passed, designated that the next election for the 5th District seat would be for a two-term year between December 18, 2027 and December 15, 2029, bringing the elections for the seat back into alignment with the remainder of the district councilmember elections, which have four-year terms.
Amendment 2, which narrowly failed, had sought to move the City Council's seats to six 'regional at-large' councilmembers and three 'citywide at-large' council members, instead how it is currently made up, which six councilmembers representing each of the city's six districts and three 'at-large' councilmembers.
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The reasoning for the amendment was a state law which passed in 2023. The law requires the same voting population for both primary and general elections, meaning there would be either voting for district council members within the district they would represent or within the entire city. In the upcoming election, voting for the district seats will be done in-district only for both the primary and general elections.
Knoxville's municipal elections are non-partisan. The two candidates for each district seat who have the highest number of votes will be the candidates voted on during the general election.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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