Shane McFarland

Shane McFarland (born August 5, 1974) is an American politician who is currently serving as the 57th Mayor of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, since 2014. He was first elected on April 15, 2014, 40 years old, making him the youngest mayor in Murfreesboro history. McFarland was recently re-elected in 2022. Though elected in a non-partisan municipal election, McFarland is affiliated with the Republican Party.

Education
Shane McFarland is a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University. He served as 1995-1996 MTSU Student Body (SGA) President and received his BA in Accounting in 1997. He is a 1998 graduate of Leadership Rutherford.

Career
Shane McFarland was elected to the Murfreesboro City Council in 2006. He later ran for mayor and won in 2014, and is still currently mayor, recently getting re-elected in 2022.

Events during mayor tenure
In 2017, white nationalists groups that rallied Saturday in Shelbyville, Tennessee, were met by a large police presence and dozens of shouting counterprotesters. Hours later, a second rally planned in nearby Murfreesboro was canceled. Shane McFarland denounced the rallies.

In June, 2023, the Murfreesboro city council enacted an ordinance outlawing “indecent exposure, public indecency, lewd behavior, nudity or sexual conduct”. A reference within the ordinance to an element of the city code that categorized homosexuality as an act of indecent sexual conduct, meant that this change effectively banned homosexual activity. The ordinance was used to deny support for local Pride events and remove books with LGBT+ content from the town library. Following a First Amendment lawsuit from the ACLU and BoroPride, Murfreesboro city council voted unanimously to modify the ordinance to remove reference to homosexuality on Oct. 19, 2023.