John Cooper is the ninth mayor of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County.

Since taking office in 2019, he has achieved historic results for residents by making Nashville’s neighborhoods the centerpiece of his agenda.

After just three years in office, Mayor Cooper has made Nashville’s teachers the best-paid in Tennessee, provided paid family leave to ALL public school employees for the first time ever, and provided significant pay increases to bus drivers, cafeteria workers and paraprofessionals.

The financial turnaround Mayor Cooper helped engineer has enabled record neighborhood investments in schools, transportation, and parks.

For the first time ever, Mayor Cooper established that all Metro Nashville employees will be paid a living wage of $18/hour at minimum.

Meanwhile, Oracle Corporation is investing $1.2 billion and creating 8,500 jobs in Nashville; the economic development project is unrivaled in the state’s history.

After adopting a Metro Transportation Plan for the first time, Nashville now has a local Department of Transportation (NDOT), dedicated entirely to pedestrian safety, neighborhood infrastructure improvements, and better traffic management.

The city has more than tripled its affordable housing resources, including a first-ever Metro Housing Division.

Nashville is co-leading a private-public partnership to construct 100 megawatts of local, utility-scale solar power. Earlier this year, Mayor Cooper adopted an ambitious 2050 goal: reduce community greenhouse gas emissions 80% from 2014 levels.

John Cooper served as an At-Large Member of Metro Council from 2015 to 2019, receiving the second most votes in Nashville’s history for a Council Member in the city-wide election.

He brings more than 30 years of business and financial experience in retail, banking, and real estate to his leadership. He is the founder of The Heritage at Brentwood, a large, continuing-care senior living community, and Happy ReTales, a volunteer-directed, pet products retail store where all profits benefit animal rescue.

Mayor Cooper holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and a master’s degree in business from Vanderbilt University.

He was born in Nashville and raised in Shelbyville. His brother Jim served as a United States Congressman representing Nashville for over 30 years, and his father Prentice Cooper was the 39th governor of Tennessee from 1939-1945.

He and his wife, Constitutional law professor Laura Fitzgerald Cooper, have three teenage sons and three dogs. They attend Christ Church Cathedral.