Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin has won re-election, amassing 64.3 percent of the total vote and avoiding a potential runoff in Tuesday’s municipal election.
According to the City Clerk’s Office, mayoral challengers Lashunda Scales, current Jefferson County Commissioner, won 20.8 percent of the vote, and former Mayor William Bell, won 9.1 percent of the votes. Both conceded victory to Woodfin before the mayor’s victory speech just after 10:10 p.m. Tuesday night. All other mayoral candidates did not gain more than 5 percent of the vote.
“The energy in this room tonight doesn’t reflect me; it reflects us,” Woodfin said before a raucous crowd of supporters and campaign staff at The Fennec near Birmingham’s Railroad Park. “The energy in this room is the definition of team Birmingham.”
Woodfin thanked God, his family, supporters and campaign volunteers, who’s canvasing efforts he highlighted during the address.
“Four years ago my campaign knocked on over 50,000 doors. In this campaign, we knocked on over 80,000 doors,” Woodfin said. “I couldn’t be more proud of our incredible team and the hard work they’ve put in to make another four years of progress possible for Birmingham.”
In a press release after the election, Woodfin pledged continued focus on reducing crime, continued management of the city’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, expansion of the Pardons for Progress initiative, further reassessment and implementation of best practices for the Birmingham Police Department, and further commitment to Birmingham’s 99 neighborhoods.
“My sense of commitment, and my sense of urgency, is as steadfast as it was four years ago,” Woodfin said.
For the rest of the municipal slate, six of the seven incumbents up for city council election secured their council seats without runoff, with Council President William Parker of Birmingham’s 4th District to compete in a run-off election with challenger J.T Moore on Oct. 5.
In Birmingham’s City School Board race, District 1 and 9 will require run-offs. Derrick L. Billups and Neota Williams unseated District 4 and 2’s incumbents respectively, with District 3’s Mary Boehm and District 8’s Sonja Q. Smith the only incumbents running to retain their seat. James A. Sullivan won the District 5 seat, previous held by Mickey Millsap, and Leticia Watkins won the District 6 seat, previous held by Cheri Gardner. Millsap and Gardner did not run for re-election.
According to AL.com, 36,790 ballots were cast from a pool of 145,564 registered voters, bringing turnout to 25.27 percent.
