Her first test at SUN came when a 2018 city bond of more than $200 million was awarded to billionaire John Ingram for the construction of Nashville SC Stadium (now known as Geodis Park) and a mixed-use development-this, during a time when, as Kelly remembers it, both city employees and the school district were told there was no money for raises or basic improvements.
Kelly’s decade of work in the city’s department of parks and recreation, where she led the Napier Community Center, and as executive director of Stand Up Nashville transformed the former Tennessee State University athlete from aspiring basketball star into a vocal proponent of labor and housing rights and corporate regulation. Despite this, Kelly remains undeterred, even ebullient, in her fight for Nashville’s minority and working-class communities. The social justice advocate, community leader, and East Nashville native is running her rookie campaign against Trump-aligned incumbent Mark Green for Tennessee’s redrawn seventh congressional district, another in a recent spate of gerrymandered districts that has opened the once-fortified Democratic city to Republican conquest. Odessa Kelly is the political archetype of the happy warrior.
