John Ray Clemmons is a candidate for Metro Council in District 18 who brings an abundant history of public service to the race to fill the seat left vacant by Councilman Keith Durbin.
 
Upon John Ray’s graduation from Lebanon High School, he left his family farm to attend Columbia University in New York City. Outside the classroom at Columbia, John Ray’s time was spent rowing on the Hudson and Harlem Rivers with the Columbia crew and working on campus.

 

Among John Ray’s jobs on campus was a stint as George Stephanopoulos’ research assistant while Stephanopoulos taught and wrote a book about his years in the Clinton White House, All Too Human.
 
John Ray got his first real taste of working on legislative policy and learning the intricacies of the legislative process while working on the U.S. Senate Committee for Energy and Natural Resources as an intern for the venerable Democratic Senator Dale Bumpers.
 
Upon graduation from Columbia University, John Ray returned to Tennessee to care for his grandfather who had been diagnosed with cancer. After several weeks with his grandfather, John Ray took his grandfather’s advice and departed the farm to begin his career in public service. John Ray landed in Congressman Bob Clement’s congressional office in Washington, DC where he served the people of Nashville and Tennessee’s Fifth Congressional District for almost two years as a legislative aide for the former congressman. During his tenure on Capitol Hill, John Ray worked on legislative matters including taxes, transportation, small business, and environmental issues.
 
John Ray departed Capitol Hill to return to Tennessee where he has worked on statewide and local campaigns to elect Democrats to public office. Following the election of Governor Phil Bredesen in 2002, Clemmons was named Political Director of the Tennessee Democratic Party. Clemmons spent a year and a half travelling the state of Tennessee recruiting and training candidates to run for the Tennessee General Assembly, overseeing the reorganization of all 95 Democratic county parties, and positioning the state of Tennessee to play a crucial role in the 2004 national Democratic primary process.
 
John Ray earned his law degree at the University of Memphis in 2 ½ years and promptly earned admission to the Tennessee Bar. Since he began practicing law, John Ray has represented the legal interests of a neighborhood association, an indigent prisoner, special education students, small business owners, and registered voters in Davidson County. John Ray was recently appointed by Governor Phil Bredesen as the consumer member of a licensing board within the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance.

John Ray and his wife, Tamara, began dating their freshman year of college soon after meeting outside the Columbia boathouse. Tamara was the coxswain of the boat in which John Ray rowed for the Columbia crew.

While John Ray worked in Washington, Tamara’s hometown, and Tennessee, Tamara worked in New York City and Nashville. Tamara then worked in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles while earning her M.B.A. from UCLA.

Following a recent yearlong stint in Washington, DC working for a major telecommunications company, Tamara returned to Nashville to work for Nashville-based Echo, a Ticketmaster company, on Music Row.

The newest member of the Clemmons family, a “mostly Golden Retriever”, answers to “Wrigley.” John Ray, Tamara, and Wrigley can be seen walking along the sidewalks of their neighborhood daily.