For the past several months, one of Birmingham’s Mayor Randall Woodfin’s most vocal critics has been state Rep. Juandalynn Givan, who has rarely missed an opportunity to blame Woodfin for a variety of city ills.
On Tuesday, the impetus for those critiques became apparent: Givan is running for mayor.
Givan, who is in her fourth term representing House District 60 in the Birmingham area, told WTVM-13 in Birmingham that she planned to retain her House seat while running for mayor this year. Birmingham’s municipal elections are scheduled for August 25.
“It’s the crime, it’s the streets, it’s the city of Birmingham,” Givan said during an interview with the TV station. “Look at the city, the city’s filthy. Streets not paved, potholes not filled, trash and debris in some areas – it looks like a war zone.”
Woodfin was Birmingham’s youngest mayor when elected in 2017 and has been an extremely popular mayor for much of his tenure, winning re-election in 2021 with 65 percent of the vote in a seven-candidate race. But his popularity has taken a hit of late, thanks in large part to a crime problem that has at times seemed to overwhelm the city and its leadership.
This past year was Birmingham’s deadliest in more than 90 years, with 151 murders, placing it near the top of the nation in per-capita murder rate. Woodfin made a series of changes within the city’s police department to address the crisis, but he still drew criticism for his handling of several issues, including a very public social media spat with Givan.
That spat erupted after Givan, in a media interview, said the city was “one step away from having to call in the National Guard,” following a series of murders. She also called on the police chief to resign.
Those comments received the attention Givan hoped and Gov. Kay Ivey issued a statement saying she had no intention of sending the National Guard to Birmingham. Woodfin, in the meantime, hit back with a meme poking fun at Givan.
Inflammatory comments are nothing new for Givan, though. During her four terms in Montgomery, she has built a reputation for incendiary comments and challenging Republican members on a variety of issues. In 2019, Givan was followed out of the House chamber by security after a public shouting match with then-Speaker Mac McCutcheon, after he cut her microphone following a promise by Givan that she would “not stay on the plantation.”
