About
Freda Player
A Lifetime of Leadership for Nashville
Building the Bench
Freda co-founded Emerge Tennessee to train Democratic women to run for office. As its Executive Director, she built the curriculum, selected the first class with intentional inclusion of women of color, and created a pipeline that has trained over 200 women—more than 50 of whom have been elected, with a 70% win rate in local elections and a 100% incumbent re-election rate. Emerge helped elect history-making leaders like Metro Council Members Zulfat Suara and Sandra Sepulveda, State Representative London Lamar, and many others.
Fighting for Working Families
For eight years as Political Director of SEIU Local 205, Freda led all lobbying, advocacy, and electoral efforts for the union statewide. She organized workers to secure fair wages and fought to protect public school funding from charter school expansion. She served on the International Public Division Leadership Board and built a coalition that continues to advocate for Nashville’s working families.
Leading Nashville's Schools
As School Board Chair and the longest-serving Budget and Finance Committee Chair in board history, Freda oversaw a billion-dollar enterprise with accountability and transparency. Under her leadership, MNPS reached its highest graduation rate ever at 85.7%, achieved Level 5 TVAAS Growth for four consecutive years, and created the highest teacher salaries in the state. She raised the minimum wage for MNPS employees to $18/hour and expanded professional development opportunities for teachers.
Inside Metro Government
In 2018, Freda joined Mayor David Briley’s administration as Senior Legislative Advisor—the second woman and first African-American to hold that position. She led legislative and executive order efforts that helped create 10,000 new jobs, secure Amazon’s Nashville headquarters, bring MLS Soccer to Nashville, create the Mayor’s Women’s Council, launched Nashville Grad, and extend the Predators’ lease through 2049 without public subsidy.
Where It All Started
She graduated magna cum laude in political science from Fisk University, where she was Student Government President, and earned her Master’s in Political Management from The George Washington University. She began her career on the Al Gore 2000 presidential campaign and went on to serve as Political Director of the Tennessee Democratic Party. She has attended four DNC Conventions and been elected as a delegate for Barack Obama (2012), Hillary Clinton (2016), and Kamala Harris (2024).
Ready for the Clerk's Office
Freda’s career has been about one thing: making government work for people. She’s bringing that same combination of executive management, fiscal oversight, and public service to the Davidson County Clerk’s Office—an office that serves hundreds of thousands of Davidson County residents every year. She was the first candidate to file for the Clerk’s race in October 2025 because she didn’t wait to see who else would run. She saw what the office needs and she was ready.
© Copyright 2026. Paid for by Friends of Freda Player, Fabian Bedne, Treasurer
