The city of Birmingham, Ala., is holding a nonpartisan general election for mayor and city council on Aug. 24. If no candidate receives a majority of the vote, the two candidates with the most votes will advance to the runoff election scheduled for Oct. 5.
In the mayoral race, incumbent Randall L. Woodfin is facing opposition from seven candidates. Former Birmingham Mayor William A. Bell, Cerissa Brown, Napoleon Gonzalez, Philemon Hill, Lashunda Scales, Darryl Williams, and Chris Woods are running against Woodfin in the election. In the 2017 mayoral election, Woodfin defeated Bell with 59% of the vote to become the city’s mayor.
All nine seats on the city council are up for election in 2021. Since District 1 incumbent Clinton Woods was the only candidate to file for that seat, the race was canceled. Woods was re-elected to the city council without appearing on the ballot.
- District 2: Incumbent Hunter Williams, Lawrence Conaway, Kimberly Jeanty, and Don Scott will face off in the general election. Williams was elected to the city council in 2017 with 71% of the vote.
- District 3: Incumbent Valerie Abbott will face off against Joseph Casper Baker III, Wil Jones, and Alice Speake in the general election. Abbott has served on the city council since 2001 and was re-elected in 2017 with 65% of the vote.
- District 4: Incumbent William Parker, Gwendolyn Cook Webb, Scottie McClaney, J.T. Moore, and Qunelius Pettway will face off in the general election. Parker has served on the city council since 2013 and was re-elected in 2017 with 74% of the vote.
- District 5: Incumbent Darrell O’Quinn, Richard Franklin, Hiram Rahim, Erica Robbins, and Roshanique Taylor are facing off in the election. O’Quinn was elected to the city council in 2017 with 52% of the vote.
- District 6: Incumbent Crystal Smitherman, Keith Aaron, and Keith Williams are running in the general election. Smitherman was appointed to the city council in March 2019 and was elected to the city council in a 2019 special election with 52% of the vote.
- District 7: Incumbent Wardine Alexander, La’Toya Lee, Lonnie Malone, and Don Stone are facing off in the general election. Alexander was appointed to the city council in October 2018 and was elected to the city council in a 2019 special election with 54% of the vote.
- District 8: Carol Clarke, Barbara Files-Kennedy, Lynette Peters, Celida Soto, Adlai Trone, Harry Turner, Denise Webber-Jenkins, and Wanda Wright are running in the election. Incumbent Steven W. Hoyt did not file for re-election.
- District 9: Incumbent John Hilliard, Eric Hall, David Russell, and LaTonya Tate are facing off in the election. Hilliard was elected to the city council in 2017 with 51% of the vote.
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama and the 99th-largest city in the U.S. by population. It had an estimated population of 209,403 in 2019, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In 2021, Ballotpedia is covering municipal elections in 21 counties and 68 cities, including 40 mayoral elections.
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