National politics seep into Mobile’s mayoral runoff as voters head to polls Tuesday

Voters in Alabama’s second-largest city will return to the polls Tuesday, Sept. 23 to decide who will be their next mayor, casting a final vote in a runoff that has remained civil but not untouched by the country’s increasingly polarized political climate.

Though the race has focused largely on local issues such as crime prevention, economic development, and quality of life, national politics have steadily crept into the conversation. The two candidates—former Mobile County District Judge Spiro Cheriogotis and Alabama state Rep. Barbara Drummond—bring not only contrasting visions for the city but also ties to opposing sides of the national political divide.

The winner will be sworn in on November 3 and will serve a four-year term leading Mobile at a time when even municipal elections are beginning to reflect the broader partisan tensions reshaping American politics.

“It is the way you want elections to go,” said Wiley Blankenship, campaign manager for Mobile County Commissioner Connie Hudson’s mayoral campaign before the August 26 contest. “You don’t want mudslinging. This is about Mobilians and should be about the issues and ought not to be about Washington, and all of that kind of stuff.”

So far, the tone of the campaign has largely lived up to that ideal. While Cheriogotis and Drummond have sparred over qualifications and endorsements, they have avoided personal attacks.

Still, the contrast between the candidates’ political identities is hard to ignore. Cheriogotis is a Republican and former judge. Drummond is a Democrat serving in the Alabama State House. And while the race is officially nonpartisan, the race has taken on an increasingly partisan tone in recent weeks.

“Politics permeates all of our lives now and it’s down to the municipal nonpartisan elections,” said Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas and longtime observer of Southern politics. “Historically, in nonpartisan local elections, if a candidate thought that a suggestion of their partisan roots would help them, they would make that suggestion. It would be oblique as opposed to overt. But they didn’t put it front and center.”

He added, “As our politics has become more polarized, it’s more common for candidates to refer more directly to their historic party roots and campaign more directly.”

Partisanship

A campaign flyer paid for by the Alabama Works PAC links former Mobile County District Judge Spiro Cheriogotis to President Donald Trump and the MAGA movement.supplied image

Drummond, in particular, has leaned into her Democratic affiliations. She has received endorsements from several prominent figures within the party, including U.S. Senator Cory Booker, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin, and former U.S. Senator Doug Jones of Alabama.

A political action committee providing in-kind support for Drummond has also mailed flyers linking Cheriogotis to MAGA Republicans and President Donald Trump. While the rhetoric hasn’t overwhelmed the campaign, it’s clear that Mobile’s mayoral race is not entirely immune from the nation’s bitter political divide.

It also mirrors the partisan makeup of Alabama voters, typical of a Deep South state where Black voters overwhelmingly support Democratic candidates while white voters tend to back Republicans.

It’s especially notable in Mobile, a rare city where the racial demographic split is a razor-thin 47.5% Black and 46.1% white.

“Most of the Black leadership in this state are Democrats,” said Steve Flowers, a former Republican member of the Alabama State House and a longtime commentator of state politics. “Cheriogotis was a Republican judge. They already have a partisan label and people think in those terms.”

Neither candidate has mentioned Trump or Gov. Kay Ivey during the campaign, opting to stick to the local issues. But Flowers said he believes the Alabama State Democratic Party, which long has struggled to win statewide contests, wants to pull off a victory in the Mobile mayor’s contest and is investing time and energy to get voters energized.

Drummond is the current Alabama Democratic Caucus chair of the Alabama House of Representatives.

“The Democrats are rallying around that race, and are bringing attention to it,” he said.

Favorite?

Here are key factors, facts, and other anecdotes concerning Tuesday’s election:

Is there a favorite?

The election is expected to be close. Similar to the Aug. 26 election, it’s a hard outcome to predict. There has been no credible third-party polling that has occurred ahead of the contest.

Cheriogotis has a sizable campaign fundraising advantage and is hoping to follow a similar script as former Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson’s three successful mayoral election wins – outraise, outspend and outmuscle his opponent.

He has raised over $1.7 million since entering the race in January. By contrast, Drummond has raised over $580,000 during the campaign.

But despite the fundraising advantage, Cheriogotis will have a 6-percentage point deficit from the Aug. 26 election to close. Drummond finished the Aug. 26 election with 33.7% of the vote to Cheriogotis’ 27.6%.

The other two candidates in the Aug. 26 race received a combined 15,908 votes, which could be up to grab if those voters return to the polls on Tuesday. Whether these voters will turn out for the runoff is debatable, and political observers suggest many may not return for the runoff.

Former Mobile Police Chief Paul Prine finished the contest with 8,186 votes or 19.9%. Mobile County Commissioner Connie Hudson received 7,722 votes or 18.74%.

Hudson, Prine voters

Former Mobile Police Chief Paul Prine announced his candidacy for mayor inside the Atrium at Government Plaza on Monday, March 11, 2025.John Sharp

Blankenship said he could see Hudson’s voters siding with Cheriogotis. Both are Republicans. However, Hudson, a Republican and a longtime politician in Mobile, has not made a public endorsement in the race, and Blankenship is unsure if the voters who backed her will return to cast a ballot of Cheriogotis next week.

What is more certain is the likelihood of Prine voters opting to stay away from the runoff. Prine, like Hudson, has not made an endorsement in the race.

If anything, Prine voters who decide to participate in the runoff will be more open to considering Drummond. Prine famously butted heads with Stimpson last year, after he was dismissed as the police chief following the release of a controversial report about negative police-community relations and deaths involving Black criminal suspects.

“He did not keep it quiet that he was running basically against the Stimpson administration, and against (Chief of Staff and former Police Chief) Jim Barber,” Blankenship said. “That was his motivation to run, and he was able to get a certain group of people charged up in and around Mobile, particularly in the newly annexed areas of Mobile.”

Blankenship believes the loyalty of the Prine voters to the candidate were so strong – and almost unlike anything seen in Mobile before – that it’s highly unlikely a large percentage of them return for the runoff.

Prine, himself, admitted to being a Trump voter. For him to back Drummond, he would have to endorse a Democratic politician.

“I just don’t see a lot of those people even bothering to vote again,” Blankenship said.

“Some of them may (vote again), but I think a lot of (Prine voters) were those who haven’t voted in the last three to four mayoral elections, but they voted for Paul Prine this time,” Blankenship said. “They won’t vote again (during the runoff).”

Runoff turnout

Voting takes place at Gilliard Elementary School on Dauphin Island Parkway during the 2025 municipal election on Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025, in Mobile, Ala.John Sharp

The key for Drummond will be to get her voters to return to the polls again, while picking up new voters and ensure a strong Black turnout during the runoff.

Runoffs notoriously produce softer turnouts than the first elections. Flowers said that historically, Black voters often skip the second contests, producing a scenario that could be problematic for Drummond.

“The fact is people vote on racial lines, and party lines, which are one in the same now,” Flowers said. “Historically, Black Democratic voters don’t have the same propensity to go back to the runoff than upscale white Republicans do. But there may be an undercurrent of a desire to have another Black mayor in Mobile. Barbara Drummond is a very good candidate and has been a good legislator.”

Lawrence Battiste, the former executive director of public safety with the City of Mobile and a former police chief who endorsed Drummond in June, said the biggest challenge facing her campaign is to get people who are generally apathetic toward voting, interested in returning to the polls.

“Our big thing is we want people to come and out vote,” he said. “We’d prefer them to vote for us. We believe if more people turn out, we’ll get out fair share.”

Historic potential

Huntsville mayor incumbent Lorretta Spencer as pictured at a mayoral debate in 2008.file photo

A Drummond victory will be historic for Mobile. No woman has ever been elected as mayor of Mobile under the current mayor-council form of government.

Few women have served as mayors in Alabama’s four largest cities of Huntsville, Mobile, Birmingham and Montgomery. Loretta Spencer was the first woman to win a mayor’s race in the state’s four largest cities, when she defeated 10 other opponents and easily won a runoff in 1996 to become Huntsville’s mayor. She served as mayor from 1996 to 2008.

Carole Smitherman became the first Black woman to serve as a mayor of one of Alabama’s largest cities when she held the post for one month in 2009, after Larry Langford was convicted of 60 counts of bribery. At the time, Smitherman was the president of the Birmingham City Council.

No woman has been elected to the mayoral seats in Birmingham or Montgomery.

Winning formula

Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson, who is not seeking a fourth term in office, officially endorsed former Mobile County District Judge Spiro Cheriogotis as his successor for the city’s top political job during a public announcement on Wednesday, May 7, 2025, inside the Greer’s St. Louis Market in downtown Mobile, Ala. The city’s municipal election is Aug. 26, 2025.John Sharp

Cheriogotis has secured strong endorsements, and his team hopes his vision for Mobile will attract new voters to support him.

The 41-year-old former judge who resigned from the bench in January to run for mayor, has secured some important local endorsements from local law enforcement unions, Realtors, and, as of Wednesday, former Mayor Mike Dow.

Dow, himself, said he rarely endorses a political candidate. He said Cheriogotis has the “vision, integrity, the partnerships and the focus to move the city forward.”

Stimpson’s endorsement was the key backing Cheriogotis needed to move his campaign forward. He’s received support from the business community and has gotten financial backing from some of the same organizations and individuals who backed Stimpson in prior elections.

The formula was nothing but a resounding political success for Stimpson, who won his last election with 62.5% of the vote against two other opponents – Karlos Finley and former City Councilman Fred Richardson.

Still, Stimpson has remained off the campaign trail, allowing Cheriogotis to independently present his story and vision for the city.

“He knows he has his enemies,” Flowers said about Stimpson. “Prine is one of them. Prine’s people are not voting for Cheriogotis. They will stay home.”

Flowers, who predicted Drummond would have the most votes on Aug. 26 with Cheriogotis in second, said he believes Cheriogotis is the favorite on Tuesday because of the hefty financial support.

Cheriogotis is also banking on his youth – he is 41 – to help energize voters to the polls.

“I think (Mobile) is a city that has had great potential for so long and I believe we are on the cusp of realizing that potential,” he said during Wednesday’s debate on WPMI-TV. “I want to be the leader of this city that has vision, and who tackles the problems of today.”

Drummond is banking on voters to give her the opportunity due to her extensive experience in public life.

“Our better days are ahead of us,” she said, adding that she has been “groomed for such a time as this.”

Drummond said she sees a great future for Mobile – one in which her experience can take it to the next level. “I have the experience in city and county and as well in state government,” she said. “This is my DNA.”