With Election Day less than two weeks away, six candidates are competing for three seats on the Bristol City Council.
Early voting will wrap up Oct. 31, with Election Day on Nov. 3.
The three incumbent candidates, Neal Osborne, Michael Pollard and Jake Holmes, who currently serves as mayor, are running for reelection, each of them as independents. Three Democratic newcomers are also on the ticket: Melissa Brown, Elijah Walker and Jackie Nophlin.
Bristol City Council members approve zoning changes and other ordinances, appoint the city manager and have the final say on the city’s budget.
The last time a sitting council member was ousted by voters was in 2022, when three council spots were up for grabs and incumbent Bill Hartley finished fourth. Pollard and Holmes were elected to the council for the first time that same year.
Walker and Brown did not respond to multiple interview requests for this story.
When discussing issues important to them, some candidates brought up Bristol’s housing shortage and Southwest Virginia’s housing deficit of 8,600 units, and also suggested streamlined zoning and tax incentives to promote growth. Others said blighted, vacant buildings, like the old Virginia Intermont College campus, are one of the city’s biggest problems.
An issue the candidates seemed to collectively agree on, though, was that the city should get a larger portion of the gaming tax revenue from Bristol’s Hard Rock Casino.
“I would like to see something of a host city’s fee of some sort,” Holmes said by phone. “We do have more visitors coming from outside the area to the casino. There is more wear and tear on our roads, there’s more need for public safety, that type of thing.”
Holmes, who works in external affairs for Appalachian Power Co., is seeking a second term.
Currently, Bristol shares the tax revenue with 13 other localities across Southwest Virginia, which each get a little more than a 7% share. During a Southwest Virginia Regional Improvement Commission meeting earlier this year, it was projected that each would receive about $1 million in 2026.
A change to the agreement would have to be approved as a bill through the General Assembly.
A variety of local officials from other areas have pushed back against Bristol asking for a larger share because most count on the money as part of their annual budget. The previous city manager, Randy Eads, suggested in January that the city should get 27% to 50% of the revenue, rather than 7%. Some of those opposed to the move said the original agreement was the wish of the casino’s founders, Clyde Stacy and the late Jim McGlothlin.
The current city manager, Tamrya Spradlin, has said she will gauge how city council members feel about asking for changes.
Holmes said the city’s financial situation can be difficult, with the expenses of fixing odors and other issues at its quarry landfill weighing heavily on its coffers. In January, Eads said Bristol is the only locality in far Southwest Virginia that is in a negative net position, meaning liabilities exceed its total assets.
Like Holmes, incumbent candidates Osborne and Pollard both said they support the city continuing to try to secure a larger share of the casino revenue, citing the fact that all other Virginia localities with casinos get all the revenue.
They also pointed out that the city has to deal with infrastructure costs and provide police and fire protection to the casino that the other local governments don’t.
Osborne, who is vice mayor, is running for a third term. He’s a development coordinator for the United Way of Southwest Virginia and has lived in Bristol his whole life.
Pollard is a computer systems engineer, and he’s running for a second term. He’s lived in Bristol since 2005, moving here after getting his bachelor’s degree at Pensacola Christian College in Florida.
In early 2025, Pollard was censured by the council after he admitted to lying about city staff with the intention of damaging their reputations, violating the council’s code of ethics. He publicly apologized for his actions.
Nophlin, a pastor and businesswoman, is a member of the city’s industrial development authority. She, too, said the casino tax revenue agreement was not a good deal for Bristol.
“I still don’t have clarity of how other counties are enjoying revenue from a business that is here in one city,” she said. “I’d like to have been at the table to find out exactly why. Why couldn’t our senators just go ahead and let Bristol have it?”
Nophlin sought a council seat earlier this year when former council member Becky Nave stepped down and the council had to appoint someone to fill the vacancy.
Alex Littleton, an executive for a nonprofit, was chosen instead to serve out the term until 2028, when the next city elections will take place.
The deadline to register to vote in time for this election cycle is Friday, without having to cast a provisional ballot. Bristol residents can vote early at city hall, downtown. On Election Day, voters must vote in their specific precinct, which can be found by entering an address at the Virginia Department of Elections website.
For more on where the candidates stand, see the Bristol page on our Voter Guide.
