Early voting opened April 15 in Davidson County, and the quiet world of family court is suddenly looking a lot more like a political battleground. Voters will settle the Division III race of the 20th Judicial District’s family court in the May 5 Democratic primary, where appointed incumbent Bethany Glandorf is facing two challengers, Audrey Anderson and Corletra Mance, in a contest defined by crowded dockets and different playbooks for tackling a backlog of domestic-relations cases.
Glandorf was appointed to the bench by Gov. Bill Lee last November to replace retiring Judge Phillip Robinson. According to Tennessee Courts, she previously served as the Third Circuit’s special master, a role that placed her squarely in the middle of mediation, child-support, and protection-order matters before she moved up to the robe.
Once on the bench, Glandorf got to work on the calendar. As reported by the Nashville Banner, she began waiving final-hearing appearances for uncontested divorces, ordered show-cause hearings to push older cases forward and floated consolidating child-support dockets and status-conference calendars to open up courtroom time. The Banner also notes that a number of local donors, including retired Judge Phillip Robinson and area attorneys, have lined up behind her campaign, a fundraising edge her opponents argue shows how incumbency can tilt the field.
Audrey Anderson Brings Decades Of Family-Law Experience
Audrey Anderson leans on nearly thirty years of family-law practice, telling voters that deep experience in domestic cases is the surest route to trimming those heavy dockets. Local election listings and candidate profiles show she ran in the 2024 primary and applied for the 2025 vacancy, and she has argued that smaller dockets and better triage would allow judges to give litigants more focused attention. Reporting aggregated by AOL notes that Anderson also emphasizes connecting domestic-violence survivors with services and reducing the number of matters assigned to each judge.
Corletra Mance Stresses Local Roots And Broad Practice
Corletra Mance pitches herself as a general practitioner who has handled immigration, criminal and probate work, and she says that wide-ranging legal background, combined with lived experience in Nashville neighborhoods, shapes how she views the bench. Her Mance for Judge site and the city’s petition list from Metro Nashville identify her as a Division III candidate and highlight volunteer work and community outreach that she says would translate into a more inclusive, user-friendly courtroom. Those materials cast Mance as focused on practical fixes and fairness for litigants who often arrive in family court already under intense strain.
Backlog And Caseload Are At The Center
Third and Fourth Circuit family courts in Davidson County handle close to 2,000 divorce filings a year, a workload candidates say feeds into delays and bottlenecks in cases dealing with custody, support and protection orders. That strain is the core issue in this race, with Glandorf pointing to the procedural changes she has already put in place, while Anderson and Mance push for broader case-management reforms. As the Nashville Banner has noted, voters are being asked to choose among competing blends of managerial tweaks and judicial philosophy.
Early voting runs April 15–30, and Election Day is May 5 for the county primary, according to Metro Nashville. Whoever comes out on top will take a seat on the 20th Judicial District’s family court, presiding over domestic-relations dockets that affect many Nashville families.
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