Carol Swain Worked to Hold Politicians Accountable. Then She Felt God Call Her to Run.

The former Vanderbilt political science professor is in the race to become the first conservative African American to lead Nashville.

Carol Swain said she would never run for mayor of Nashville, but then a friend called her on Easter last year and addressed each of her objections.

So the retired Vanderbilt University political science and law professor prayed about entering the race.

“I got down on my knees that night and prayed,” she said in an interview with Christianity Today. “When I awakened, my mind was flooded with policy ideas for Nashville. So I jumped out of bed and started writing what became my blueprint for Nashville.”

Swain called her friend the next morning and told him she had changed her mind. She was in.

For Swain, change has been a recurring theme in her life. She went from low-income single mother to Ivy League academic, from Democrat to Republican media commentator, and from Jehovah’s Witness turned non-churchgoer to committed follower of Christ.

Now in her second run for mayor in as many years, change is a hallmark of Swain’s campaign. In an August 1 election, she hopes to become Nashville’s first African American mayor and its first conservative mayor in decades. Still, she wonders whether the Southern city’s Christians see her as the change agent some have long prayed for.

From poverty to Princeton

Swain, 65, grew up amid rural poverty in Virginia, with no indoor plumbing and just two beds to share with her 11 siblings. When it snowed, they skipped school for lack of money to buy boots. One year, she missed 80 days, Swain said in a profile published by the Nashville Tennessean.

She dropped out of school in eighth grade, married at 16, and became a mother before she was 20. Eventually, she found herself a twice-divorced mother of two who reported abuse in both marriages. Her third child died. …

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