Garrett Holt and Vivian Underwood Shipe are both hoping their second run for a Knox County Commission seat is successful this time around.

Holt holds a fundraising lead over Shipe, while Velarde's campaign shows no signs of life.

Holt, the Republican nominee, lost a close contest to Democrat Shane Jackson (the margin was 171 votes out of 10,636 ballots cast) in the District 4 race in the 2024 general election. A Democrat, Shipe narrowly lost to Kim Frazier in the 2022 At-Large District 11 seat with 42 percent of the vote in a three-person contest.

Holt, Shipe and political newcomer Dr. David Velarde are vying for At-Large Seat 11 this time around. (Frazier opted to run for Knox County mayor but lost in the GOP primary in May.) County voters have elected Republicans to the seat since it was first on the ballot in 2010 following Commission’s voter-mandated downsizing.

Holt handily defeated Liz Tombras in the Republican primary for Seat 11, 68.45 percent to 31.55 percent; Shipe was unopposed in the Democratic primary.

Candidates for at-large seats run throughout the county, not just in the district where they live. That means that they have to reach voters from Farragut to Strawberry Plains and from Heiskell to Kimberlin Heights. That costs money. 

Holt holds a commanding lead in fundraising, aided by a $15,000 loan he made to the campaign. He spent $94,449 through June 30, leaving him with $9,109 on hand. Shipe spent almost all of the $11,251 she raised during the first half of the year and had $927 in her account as of June 30.

Compass recently spoke with Shipe about her campaign. Holt’s profile has been updated from our primary coverage, and Velarde did not respond to multiple efforts to arrange an interview.

Vivian Shipe

Shipe was raised in East Knoxville and lives in Cedar Bluff, and she says that puts her in a position to tell you all about the common issues that thread through all of Knox County.

She thinks her knowledge of both urban and suburban Knox County will position her for success in the Aug. 6 election. She can cite Hardin Valley congestion, regular flooding issues in the center city, cheek-by-jowl suburbanization in Karns and school construction in Western Heights.

“I tell people: I will be their voice. I will listen to them. They will have someone on the commission who can say: ‘This is what the people want, because I have talked with them.’ And I won’t stop talking to folks. That’s going to be the most important thing: You let me know what you need, so I can speak for you,” she said.

Shipe said Knox County voters need to have “trusted messengers” in government.

“People come up to me all the time and say, ‘I wish I could vote for you, but you’re not in my district.’ We spend time every day explaining that ‘at large’ means it’s the whole Knox County,” she said.

Shipe, 70, was a little African-American girl in an era when she could only attend the Tennessee Valley Fair on Aug. 8, the state’s Emancipation Day. 

“I’ve been an advocate all my life for people trying to help people that have no voice. So I really want to get on the other side of the table to try to make some changes in laws or bills,” she said.

Shipe worked with the U.S. Postal Service for 35 years, and 25 of those years were spent as president of the local union shop. “I am adamantly pro-union. I always have been,” she said.

She describes herself as a “grassroots” collaborator, and this is evident in her leadership against a city proposal to sell Chilhowee Park to a private foundation. She collected signatures opposing the plan and got citizens to voice their concerns directly to City Council. She laments the possible departure of the Tennessee Valley Fair from the park pending renewal of a lease with the city, but she maintains that the park itself is an asset beyond the fair that has spanned generations.

“People want a plain old park, just like they got in Victor Ashe (Park), just like they got in Lakeshore (Park), where you can walk your dog, run, play frisbee or just do nothing but look at the trees,” she said.

Shipe wants to focus her campaign on a three-plank platform: Education, mental health and housing.

The mental-health focus is rooted in her nonprofit, I Am the Voice of the Voiceless Inc. She also is a proponent of behavioral mental-health diversion, which could prevent mental-health issues from elevating to criminal charges.

Educationally, she said, she wants to see the county get more use out of its schools and offer preschool and after-school programs when school is not in session.

“I’m already a proponent for using the schools 24/7,” she said, noting that it could ease the childcare burden faced by many.

“Let the kids get in there and you can start teaching them” — not necessarily in classrooms, Shipe said. “I’d like to see the schools open up and let community organizations use the building so it just doesn’t sit empty from 3:30 on and all summer long.” She also wants to see more vocational education offered to Knox County students.

Her solutions for the housing crunch include a commitment to repurposing and refurbishing vacant buildings for residential uses ranging from young professionals to the rapidly growing number of elderly Knox County residents.

“Look at Palm Beach Mill Outlet, look at Levi’s, look at all these buildings,” Shipe said. “We don’t have to reinvent the wheel. There’s infrastructure there; it just has to be strengthened and fixed.”

Garrett Holt

This is Holt’s third shot at elected office, but he said this time feels different. In addition to the 2024 County Commission District 4 race, he ran for the nonpartisan 6th District City Council seat in 2021. 

“In the City Council race, I walked into that knowing we were underdogs just based on the political dynamics of the city,” he said. “My last run for Commission, we were in a very, very close race in the 4th District. I lost in two very tight partisan elections, particularly the last one.” 

Holt described the county’s 4th District as “very purple,” and he lost by 1 percentage point. “I think this one’s a lot different, in my opinion,” he said.

He said he should have an advantage as a Republican running for At-Large Seat 11.

“In the case of these countywide seats right now, typically the Republican primary will decide the election,” he said. 

Holt, 31, lives just west of Rocky Hill and is a lifelong Knoxville resident who was the valedictorian of his 2012 West High School class. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Tennessee with a degree in accounting and international business.

His interest in politics and public service started in high school. “As it relates to public office and everything, I was involved in service from a young age, really involved in a variety of community and service organizations in high school and college,” he said.

More recently he has been involved with Family Promise of Knoxville and is a past appointed member of the Board of Zoning Appeals. He currently serves on the Public Building Authority board.

After college, Holt worked in public accounting, and he sold medical diagnostic equipment for nine years. He has ventured into real estate and just made another big career pivot.

Holt, a bodybuilder, is studying medicine at Lincoln Memorial University with plans to become a physician. And he is spending virtually all of his free time running for office.

“The things I’m hearing most often are a lot of the same things I was hearing two years ago. I’d say the top things are growth and infrastructure, and those kind of go hand in hand, you know,” he said. 

“Knox County is growing — how are we responding to it? And I think people see that daily effect in terms of traffic, in terms of overcrowding at schools. They’re also seeing that in terms of inflationary pressures on our housing market.”

People are also talking about tax increases, Holt said, and some are slowly beginning to believe they might be necessary. The last time the county raised its property-tax rate was 1999.

“People are asking, ‘Hey, is this something that’s going to be a real conversation in the next few years?’” Holt said, adding that the “chatter is louder and louder.”

He said compensation levels for first responders and other county employees need to be increased, characterizing that as a necessary public investment. That’s also the case with infrastructure improvements that people throughout the county are clamoring about.

He leans into a bullet point on his website: “Proactive planning in response to growth.” He used the same plank in a past campaign and considers it a motto of sorts.

“I think we live in a generally well-managed community, but I think the dynamics of that have changed, you know, in terms of planning itself,” he said. 

Holt called the Advance Knox process,  updating the county’s comprehensive land-use plan for the first time in two decades, a positive step that has triggered discussion. Its recommendations still need to be codified by County Commission through the Uniform Development Ordinance.

Holt said that if he wins, he would look forward to really examining Advance Knox recommendations “with a fine-toothed comb to make sure that this is representing what we want the future of this community to look like.” 

David Velarde

Velarde is something of an enigma. A Northwest Knoxville resident and a podiatrist with a practice on Merchant Drive, he has not engaged much with the media.

He didn’t respond to Compass’ attempts to reach him for an interview, nor did he participate in the News Sentinel’s pre-election coverage. He has no campaign website or campaign Facebook page, and his personal Facebook page makes no mention of his running for office.

Velarde did provide a written response for KnoxTNToday’s primary campaign coverage, though he only addressed a question about his motivation to run for the office and referred all other questions back to that answer. 

“I understand that (the questions) address several important issues facing Knox County,” he wrote. “I also recognize that many candidates may choose to answer each one in the usual political way. I have chosen to answer differently, because I want my position to be clear and consistent. My central purpose in seeking this office is to improve the health-related responsibilities of Knox County government. For that reason, my answers reflect that priority.”