Mayor and council runoffs set Tuesday in many Alabama cities

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Birmingham City Hall

Voters in dozens of Alabama cities will go back to the polls Tuesday to settle races for mayor and city council posts.

The election is the runoff for posts in which no candidate won a majority during August’s municipal voting.

Among the more than a dozen cities that will be settling mayoral posts are Anniston, Daphne, Decatur, Enterprise, Florence, Prichard and Selma. All races are officially nonpartisan.

In Decatur, incumbent Tab Bowling is trying to become the first mayor to win consecutive terms in the Tennessee Valley city since 1992. He faces Butch Matthews, a former city council member making his third run at the top post.

In Anniston, first-term incumbent Jack Draper is trying to hold off City Councilman David Reddick, who is bidding to become the Calhoun County city’s first Black mayor.

In Selma, former mayor James Perkins, who became that city’s first Black mayor in 2000, is trying to make a comeback. It’s the eighth time he’s run to lead the city. He faces City Council member Miah Jackson, who could become the city’s first female mayor.

In northwest Alabama’s largest city, incumbent Florence Mayor Steve Holt ran 20 votes behind City Council Andy Betterton in August. He’ll try to overcome that gap to hold his seat.

In Daphne, Mayor Dane Haygood didn’t seek a third term, with City Council President Robin LeJeune and retired Air Force colonel and businessman Steve Carey vying to succeed him.

In Prichard, incumbent Mayor Jimmie Gardner handily led a nine-person field in August, but didn’t win a majority, meaning he will face City Council member Lorenzo Martin.

Alabama’s largest cities elect their officials on different cycles.

Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.