It appears that Spiro Cheriogotis will be the next mayor of Mobile, Alabama, with the former district judge projected to narrowly defeat state Representative Barbara Drummond after Tuesday’s runoff election.
With 97 percent of precincts reporting, unofficial results show that Cheriogotis received 51.4 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s runoff election, with 24,949 votes to Drummond’s 23,596 votes. Cheriogotis had previously finished second in the polls behind Drummond during the August 26 general election.
Cheriogotis celebrated his victory at an election watch party Tuesday night, during which he thanked his campaign team and supporters.
“To our interns, our field coordinators, our steering committee, our finance committee, our prayer team… the hundreds of volunteers that got out, got on the streets, made this win happen, it came down to every last one of you–every last barbecue butt that was cooked–thank you,” Cheriogotis told an audience of supporters. “Thank you. This was a team effort, and you’re looking at the team.”
Cheriogotis also pledged to continue the legacy of outgoing Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson whose endorsement he received ahead of the runoff.
Cheriogotis’s big-money campaign—which built its sizable war chest through large donations from corporations and PACs—appears to have been too much for Drummond to overcome, even with the historic grassroots support behind her campaign and endorsements from prominent Democratic leaders at the local, state and national levels.
“We came in pretty much almost in a dead heat. We gave this a very, very good fight, and to say we had little money but we had more people, that is rather gratifying,” Drummond told News 5 after the loss.
“We’re going to continue to fight for Mobile, that’s where our heart is. That has not changed,” she added.
Drummond said that she plans to continue her work representing Mobile as a state legislator in Montgomery.
“I am still a legislator, so I will go back to Montgomery,” Drummond stated.
Provisional ballots will still need to be added to the final vote totals before an official result can be announced, and it is possible that more provisional ballots were cast than usual due to a reported technical error at multiple polling locations, with Mobile voters being improperly flagged as “inactive” by electronic poll books.
If Cheriogotis remains the winner after the final tally, he will formally assume office as Mobile’s 109th mayor on November 3, 2025.
