|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Results in Tuscaloosa’s municipal elections on Tuesday were overwhelmingly positive for the city’s incumbents. At present only the District 1 race seems likely to proceed to a scheduled April 1 runoff election, as most incumbents either easily won majorities or were running unopposed.
The results below are unofficial until they are presented to the Tuscaloosa city council on March 11, at which time any required runoffs will be formally announced. However, given the margins, the results are unlikely to change.
Mayor
Long time Tuscaloosa mayor Walt Maddox easily won a sixth term on Tuesday, receiving 5,727 votes, or over 85 percent of the votes cast. Maddox was challenged by first time political candidate Denson Ferrell II who wound up with 859 votes.
In 2021, for comparison, Maddox only won 56.6 percent of the vote, with the remaining fraction split between two challengers: Serena Fortenberry and Martin Houston.
As a first time candidate with no prior political experience, Ferrell faced an uphill battle to define his policies and make his case for why a relatively inexperienced candidate should be elected mayor.
In a recent interview with ABC 33/40, Ferrell said voters should pick him because “I’m going to hold people accountable, I’m going to tell the truth, I’m going to be very transparent.” His specific policy proposals, though, often lacked detail or were hard to distinguish from Maddox’s proposals.
Stephen Dethrage, the editor-in-chief of the Tuscaloosa Thread, wrote that at a February 20 candidate forum “if Ferrell felt comfortable enough with a question to answer it specifically, he was often left to concede that Maddox made good points before him.”
Adding to the headwinds against Ferrell, Maddox was widely endorsed by the Tuscaloosa city council and also received a last minute endorsement from former University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban and Saban’s wife Terry Saban which may have helped boost his margins in the college town.
“Thank you Tuscaloosa for your trust and support,” Maddox wrote in a post to his personal Facebook page after the election results were announced. “Let’s get to work.”
District 1
District 1 hosted the most competitive race in Tuscaloosa this election cycle, a three-way contest between incumbent Matthew Wilson, returning challenger Que Chandler, and political newcomer Joe Eatmon.
Both Eatmon and Chandler boasted about their pro-labor records and endorsements, with Chandler telling APR in an January interview that it was “deeply disappointing to have a leader [Matthew Wilson] who stands against workers and unions.”
Eatmon touted an endorsement from the West Alabama Labor Council. James M. Crowder, the organization’s president, wrote in the endorsement that “Eatmon’s unwavering commitment to improving the future of our youth and his dedication to community leadership have firmly established him as the ideal candidate.”
In contrast to both of his challengers, last year the incumbent Matthew Wilson recorded an anti-union video for Mercedes during the unionization campaign at the company’s Tuscaloosa County manufacturing plant.
University of Alabama College Democrats president Braden Vick informed APR that “Wilson was cold on labor unions while Eatmon proclaimed himself a proud supporter of unions” at his club’s candidate forum. That difference, Vick said, is why the UA College Democrats unanimously voted to endorse Eatmon.
While Wilson received the most votes on Friday, 402, he didn’t win a majority of the over 1,000 votes cast in District 1, which means the race will now proceed to a run-off. Because Eatmon received 333 votes, just 12 more votes than Chandler’s 321, the dean of community relations for Shelton State will face off against the incumbent in the upcoming two-way race.
Eatmon told APR that he was “honored to have made it this far” but the “campaign was not over” in a text message Tuesday night. “I know that a vote is earned and I will continue working every day until the runoff election on April 1 earning your vote,” he stated, directing potential supporters to his campaign website.
Wilson had not responded to APR’s request for comment at the time this article was published.
District 2
While the race in District 2 was also a three-way race, it currently appears like two-term incumbent Raevan Howard managed to win a majority of the vote on Tuesday and will not have to compete in a run-off election in April. Howard was running against Ashley Wheat and Dennis “Quick” Collins.
A self-described “entrepreneur, nonprofit leader, and mentor,” Wheat’s campaign website and public messaging focused on supporting Tuscaloosa families through programs like expanding Section 8 housing availability and giving additional funding to the arts.
“You’ve been entrusted once again with leading our community,” Wheat told Howard in her concession statement Tuesday night. “I look forward to seeing the tough issues tackled and positive change enacted. Whatever I can do to help continue making the community a better place, I am at your service.”
Collins, an alum of Tuscaloosa-based community college Shelton State, did not post any specific policy proposals or platform online. However, one of Collins’ campaign posters described him as an “anti-gun violence campaign community activist.”
Out of the 887 votes counted in the unofficial totals, Howard won 447, or 50.4 percent. Wheat received 280 votes, or 31.6 percent, and Collins got 145 votes, or 16.3 percent. While the District 2 race was more competitive than most of the elections in Tuscaloosa this cycle, there will not be a runoff between Howard and Wheat because, unlike Wilson, Howard managed to get a simple majority of the votes cast rather than just a plurality.
District 3
Incumbent city councilor Norman Crow ran unopposed this cycle. The 2025-2029 term will be his second term on the Tuscaloosa city council.
District 4
Incumbent Lee Busby also ran unopposed this year. First elected during a special election in 2019, he ran unopposed in 2021 as well, making the 2025-2029 term also his second full term on the city council.
District 5
In the third and final unopposed race for Tuscaloosa City Council, District 5 will continue to be represented by city council president Kip Tyner. Tyner was first elected to the council in 1997 and will now begin his eighth term.
District 6
In another three-way race, John Faile handily secured a second term on Tuesday. A former police officer and former director of the Tuscaloosa County Juvenile Detention Center, Faile’s statements about his planned second term focused on his plans to curtail crime and highlighted his opposition to some of Mayor Maddox’s policies.
Faile was running against both Eric Gaines and Lisa M. Young. A Tuscaloosa realtor, Gaines had run against Faile while seeking the District 6 seat back in 2021, but didn’t qualify for the runoff that Faile eventually won. Just like Faile, Gaines told the Tuscaloosa Thread that his number one priority would be curbing violent crime.
Young is the president of the Tuscaloosa chapter of the NAACP and declared she was “ready to fight for affordable housing, quality education, and sustainable neighborhoods” when launching her campaign. Over the past couple months she’s criticized Faile for taking $15,000 from the Alabama Realtor Association PAC and allegedly not filing a required financial report with the Alabama Secretary of State’s office.
On Tuesday, Faile received 797 votes, or 54.4 percent. 269 people voted for Gains and 398 for Young. While Faile’s majority was not overwhelming, receiving more than twice the votes of both Gains and Young means he likely would have handily won a run-off if one had been required.
District 7
Cassius Lanier easily won a second term in the only two-way race for Tuscaloosa city council this election cycle with 668 votes, or 70.7 percent of the total votes cast in his district. First elected in 2021, Lanier actually had to win his current seat twice that year after a judge nullified his first victory over concerns about his eligibility and the specific timing of a pardon he received.
This year, Lanier ran against Oliver “Maurice” Sealey, a local funeral director who highlighted building “safe, walkable neighborhoods” in his campaign materials. Sealey received 277 votes according to the unofficial count.
Board of Education Seats
Seven of the eight races for the Tuscaloosa City Schools Board of Education were uncontested:
- Chair: Eric M. Wilson, two term incumbent
- District 2: Kendra Williams, two term incumbent
- District 3: Lesley Powell, one term incumbent
- District 4: Clint Mountain, first time candidate
- District 5: Erica Grant, three term incumbent
- District 6: Marvin L. Lucas, four term incumbent,
- District 7: Erskine E. Simmons, four term incumbent
Karen Thompson-Jackson, the current board member representing District 1, won her second term handily in the only contested race. She was challenged by Tony Humphries who has run to represent District 1 on the Board of Education twice before, in 2005 and 2017, and ran to represent District 1 on the city council in 2001. According to the unofficial results, Thompson-Jackson received 851 votes to Humphries’ 169.
