Randall Woodfin (born May 29, 1981) is an American lawyer and politician who is the 34th and current
mayor of Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...
, after winning the October 3, 2017, runoff against incumbent
William A. Bell
William A. Bell Sr. (born June 1, 1949) is an American politician who served as the 33rd mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, from 2010 to 2017. He had previously held the office on an interim basis in 1999. Prior to that, he had served several term ...
. He previously served as president of the
Birmingham City School Board (2013–2015) and as a city attorney for of Birmingham from 2009–2017.
Early life and education
Woodfin was born and raised in
North Birmingham
North Birmingham is a community of Birmingham in Jefferson County, Alabama, United States. Currently the North Birmingham community is further subdivided into six neighborhoods: Acipco-Finley, Collegeville, Fairmont, Harriman Park, Hooper City, ...
and Crestwood neighborhoods. He attended North Birmingham Elementary School, Putnam Middle School, and
Shades Valley High School
Shades Valley High School (SVHS) is a four-year public secondary school in the Birmingham, Alabama suburb of Irondale. The school was established in 1948 near Homewood and moved to its present location in 1996. SVHS is the largest of 14 high sch ...
. He graduated from
Morehouse College
, mottoeng = And there was light (literal translation of Latin itself translated from Hebrew: "And light was made")
, type = Private historically black men's liberal arts college
, academic_affiliations ...
, where he majored in
political science
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...
and was student government association president. Woodfin went on to earn a
J.D. from the
Cumberland School of Law
Cumberland School of Law is an American Bar Association, ABA accredited law school at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, United States. It was founded in 1847 at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee and is the 11th oldest law schoo ...
at
Samford University
Samford University is a private Christian university in Homewood, Alabama. In 1841, the university was founded as Howard College by Baptists. Samford University describes itself as the 87th oldest institution of higher learning in the United Sta ...
.
Career
Early career
Between college and law school, Woodfin worked for the Birmingham City Council, the Mayor's Office Division of Youth Services, and the Jefferson County Committee on Economic Opportunity. He ran unsuccessfully for the Birmingham Board of Education's District 3 seat in 2009, placing third in a four-person race.
In 2009, Woodfin became an assistant city attorney for Birmingham, a position he held until he was elected mayor in 2017.
In 2013, he ran for a seat on the school board again, this time successfully. He was appointed president of the board two months after being elected; he held that position until 2015 and remained on the board until 2017.
He is a board member of several community organizations, including the Alabama Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy,
Birmingham Botanical Gardens, and the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama. He is a former board member of Birmingham Change Fund,
American Red Cross
The American Red Cross (ARC), also known as the American National Red Cross, is a non-profit humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. It is the desi ...
, Birmingham Education Foundation, Birmingham Cultural Alliance, S.T.A.I.R., and past president of the Birmingham chapter of the Morehouse College Alumni Association. He is a graduate of Leadership Birmingham class of 2014, Leadership Alabama class of 2016, and was a featured speaker at
TEDx
TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...
Birmingham 2017.
Woodfin was the Alabama state director for
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
's 2016 presidential campaign.
2017 mayoral campaign
Woodfin announced his run for Birmingham mayor in August 2016, challenging incumbent candidate William Bell along with 10 other candidates. In the
general election
A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
, held on August 22, 2017, Woodfin won 40% of the vote, triggering a runoff election with Bell, who placed second. Woodfin won the October 3 runoff with 58.95% of the vote, becoming the city's youngest mayor in over 120 years.
During the campaign, Woodfin criticized Bell's failure to improve Birmingham residents' quality of life and promised to focus his administration on revitalization of the city's 99 neighborhoods.
Bell criticized Woodfin for receiving out-of-state contributions during the campaign; Woodfin argued that it was the only way to combat the incumbent candidate's sizable local donor base.
Woodfin received support from Vermont Senator
Bernie Sanders
Bernard Sanders (born September8, 1941) is an American politician who has served as the junior United States senator from Vermont since 2007. He was the U.S. representative for the state's at-large congressional district from 1991 to 2007 ...
, who recorded a robo-call telling voters that Woodfin would fight for Medicare for All.
Our Revolution
Our Revolution (sometimes known by its initials OR) is an American progressive political action organization spun out of Senator Bernie Sanders's 2016 presidential campaign to continue its work. The organization's mission is to educate vote ...
President
Nina Turner
Nina Hudson Turner ( Hudson; born December 7, 1967) is an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, she was a Cleveland City Council member from 2006 to 2008 and a member of the Ohio Senate from 2008 until 2014. Turner was the Democ ...
visited Birmingham twice to campaign for Woodfin.
As mayor
Woodfin promised throughout the campaign to conduct a
forensic
Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to Criminal law, criminal and Civil law (legal system), civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standard ...
audit on city finances, but upon taking office instead conducted a
performance audit
Performance audit refers to an independent examination of a program, function, operation or the management systems and procedures of a governmental or non-profit entity to assess whether the entity is achieving economy, efficiency and effectivenes ...
.
In March 2018, Woodfin's transition committee announced it had discovered that the city's pension fund had been consistently underfunded for more than 15 years, endangering the city's credit rating and retirement benefits for thousands of city employees. Woodfin increased funding to the pension fund by $2.9 million in the city's 2019 budget, and by $5.2 million in the city's 2020 budget — which Woodfin's administration claimed fully met the city's obligation to the fund for the first time in more than a decade.
Woodfin's administration has drawn criticism for a perceived lack of transparency, with
AL.com columnist Kyle Whitmire calling Woodfin's attempts to block public information requests "stalling and stonewalling" and a violation of his campaign promises to increase transparency.
Neighborhood revitalization
In his first two years in office, Woodfin budgeted $13 million for street resurfacing, $2.5 million toward clearing overgrown lots, and $6.5 million toward demolishing dilapidated structures. Woodfin has argued that his predecessor's policy regarding
urban blight
Urban decay (also known as urban rot, urban death or urban blight) is the sociological process by which a previously functioning city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair and decrepitude. There is no single process that leads to urban deca ...
was "not as aggressive as it needed to be" and that it would be a "priority" for his administration.
Crime
Birmingham's high violent crime rate was a central plank of Woodfin's campaign platform; his nephew, Ralph Woodfin III, was shot and killed in August 2017, just weeks before the general election.
Shortly after Woodfin took office in November 2017, Birmingham Police Department Chief A.C. Roper announced his resignation. After a lengthy search, Woodfin appointed former
Los Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal police department of Los Angeles, California. With 9,974 police officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-large ...
commander Patrick D. Smith to the position.
In 2019, Woodfin's administration unveiled a public service announcement campaign titled "PEACE" featuring 30-second videos of mothers of gun violence victims telling their stories.
The city's homicide rate has stayed approximately the same since Woodfin took office; the city logged 117 homicides in 2017, 110 in 2018, and 112 in 2019. Woodfin has maintained that total violent crime has dropped in the city during his tenure, and points to the police department's removal of thousands of guns from the streets.
Several high-profile gun deaths — high-schooler Courtlin Arrington, 4-year-old Jurnee Coleman, Kamille "Cupcake" McKinney, and Sgt. Wytasha Carter — happened during Woodfin's first two years in office. Additionally, 2020 resulted in the highest murder rate in Birmingham, Alabama in 25 years.
In January 2022, Birmingham Police Chief Patrick Smith announced his resignation. Woodfin appointed Capt. Scott Thurmond as interium chief.
Food deserts
One of Woodfin's early campaign promises was to address
food deserts
Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is ing ...
in the city.
COVID-19 response
Along with the
Birmingham City Council
Birmingham City Council is the local government body responsible for the governance of the City of Birmingham in England, which has been a metropolitan district since 1974. It is the most populated local council area in the United Kingdom (e ...
, Woodfin's administration passed a $15 million
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
response plan in March 2020, allocating extra money for first responders' personal protective equipment, allocating overtime pay, and placing $1 million in a small business emergency loan fund. Woodfin also urged the council to pass a "shelter-in-place" ordinance on March 24, which has been extended through the end of April 2020. Under Woodfin, the Birmingham City Council voted to extend the city's mask mandates through May 24, 2021, after Governor
Kay Ivey
Kay Ellen Ivey (born October 15, 1944) is an American politician serving as the 54th and incumbent governor of Alabama since 2017. Originally a conservative Southern Democrat, Ivey became a member of the Republican Party in 2002. She was the 38t ...
announced that the statewide mandate would end April 9.
Confederate monuments
For years, Birmingham residents had been requesting Birmingham take down the Confederate monument located in the park across the street from Birmingham City Hall. Due to years of inaction, and after the
murder of George Floyd
On , George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was murdered in the U.S. city of Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old white police officer. Floyd had been arrested on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill. Chauvin knelt on Floyd's n ...
, residents took to the street to try and take down the monument themselves. The next morning Woodfin ordered the removal of the
Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Linn Park to try and prevent another protest. He also filed an executive order banning the ability for residents to protest in any public park. Alabama Attorney General
Steve Marshall filed suit against the city of Birmingham for violating the
Alabama Memorial Preservation Act.
National politics
He endorsed
Joe Biden in the
2020 Democratic presidential primary
Presidential primaries and caucuses were organized by the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party to select the 3,979 pledged delegates to the 2020 Democratic National Convention held on August 17–20 to determine the party's nomin ...
, despite having received
Bernie Sanders
Bernard Sanders (born September8, 1941) is an American politician who has served as the junior United States senator from Vermont since 2007. He was the U.S. representative for the state's at-large congressional district from 1991 to 2007 ...
' endorsement during his 2017 mayoral race. Woodfin cited Biden's ability to "make sure down-ballot candidates can win" as a primary reason for his endorsement.
Woodfin was selected as one of seventeen speakers to jointly deliver the
keynote
A keynote in public speaking is a talk that establishes a main underlying theme. In corporate or commercial settings, greater importance is attached to the delivery of a keynote speech or keynote address. The keynote establishes the framework fo ...
address at the
2020 Democratic National Convention
The 2020 Democratic National Convention was a presidential nominating convention that was held from August 17 to 20, 2020, at the Wisconsin Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and virtually across the United States. At the convention, delegates of ...
.
Political views
Woodfin identifies as a political
moderate
Moderate is an ideological category which designates a rejection of radical or extreme views, especially in regard to politics and religion. A moderate is considered someone occupying any mainstream position avoiding extreme views. In American ...
, but has championed many progressive policies such as criminal justice reform, free college tuition, and marijuana legalization. In a 2019 interview with ''
The Root
"The Root" is a song by American recording artist D'Angelo. It is the eighth track on his second studio album, ''Voodoo'', which was released on January 25, 2000, by Virgin Records. "The Root" was recorded and produced by D'Angelo at New York's ...
'', Woodfin argued that "being a moderate does not equal status quo... I support a lot of things on the left but—if I’m being real—I also believe you gotta win."
When running for mayor of Birmingham in 2017, Woodfin promised to "fight to make Birmingham a
sanctuary city
Sanctuary city (; ) refers to municipal jurisdictions, typically in North America, that limit their cooperation with the national government's effort to enforce immigration law. Leaders of sanctuary cities say they want to reduce fear of deport ...
." However, in 2018 he reneged on that promise and instead proposed to make Birmingham a "welcoming city."
Woodfin believes in climate change and in 2018 he signed the "Alabama Mayors for 100% Sustainable Energy Pledge" pledge by the GASP (Greater-Birmingham Alliance to Stop Pollution) to fulfill a campaign promise. In spite of the promise and pledge, the Woodfin administration failed to live up to them.
Personal life
He grew up with three siblings; his older brother Ralph was killed by gun violence in 2011. Woodfin's nephew Ralph Woodfin III was killed in August 2017. He is single and is
Christian
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
. He attends Sixth Avenue Baptist Church in Birmingham. He is a fan of
Mannie Fresh
Byron Otto Thomas (born March 20, 1969), better known by his stage name Mannie Fresh, is an American music producer and rapper. He's best known for his productions on Cash Money Records releases, as well being half of the hip hop duo (alongside ...
,
Dr. Dre
Andre Romelle Young (born February 18, 1965), known professionally as Dr. Dre, is an American rapper and record producer. He is the founder and CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and Beats Electronics, and previously co-founded, co-owned, and ...
,
The Neptunes
The Neptunes are an American songwriting and production duo composed of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, formed in Virginia Beach, Virginia, in 1992. Williams often provides additional vocals on records and appears in the duo's music videos, ...
, and
Big K.R.I.T.
Justin Lewis Scott (born August 26, 1986), better known by his stage name Big K.R.I.T. (a backronym for King Remembered in Time), is an American rapper and record producer. Born in Meridian, Mississippi, he started his musical career in 2005. Af ...
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Woodfin, Randall
1981 births
21st-century American politicians
African-American mayors in Alabama
Alabama Democrats
Cumberland School of Law alumni
Living people
Mayors of Birmingham, Alabama
Morehouse College alumni
African-American lawyers
Alabama lawyers
21st-century African-American politicians
20th-century African-American people