State Rep. Barbara Drummond made it official on Sunday: She’s running for mayor of Mobile.

“For me, Mobile has always been like a jewel sitting on the top of a hill,” she told a crowd of supporters in an auditorium at St. Peter Baptist Church off south Broad Street.

“And it’s embedded in my heart,” she continued. “I was asked a minute ago, why would you want to do this? Y’all, public service has always been in my heart. Public service is the place where I begin because I know what the least deal with. So y’all, we can make this city and take it to another level that nobody has ever seen before. I want you all to know that I stand here today for all, not for just some, but for all.”

Drummond said her goals included creating opportunities for small business owners, for workers aspiring to start their own businesses, for young people and for seniors.

“I stand today to build a city where it’s not just some, but everyone has the opportunity to thrive,” she said. “I stand for Maysville. Down the Bay. I stand for Crichton. I stand for The Bottom. I stand for Spring Hill. I stand for West Mobile. I stand for Citrus Hill. I stand for all.”

She also pictured herself as the David in a David-vs-Goliath battle against better-funded candidates.

“I anoint each of you today with a slingshot because somebody asked me in Montgomery saying, ‘Barbara, will you have the money?’ I said, ‘I don’t know, but God knows.’ If you got a slingshot, I want you to go into each of our communities and say this is a woman who is not afraid. She’s unbought, and she’s unbossed. … I believe it is time that we take our communities back and let them know this is a community for the people and not parties.”

Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson opened up the 2025 race when he announced that he would not seek another term. Drummond, who filed paperwork laying the groundwork for her campaign on Feb. 3, enters a race with an increasingly complex field.

The early frontrunners appear to be longtime Mobile County Commissioner Connie Hudson and former Mobile County District Judge Spiro Cheriogotis. The latter’s campaign is being run by Stimpson’s chief political advisor, Candace Cooksey, who is taking an unpaid leave from her city role.

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In a recent poll conducted by WPMI-TV15, former Mobile Police Department Chief Lawrence Battiste ranked third, well behind Hudson and Cheriogotis, while former county commissioner and city council member Steve Nodine placed fourth. Nodine’s past felony convictions present obstacles to actually serving if he were to win.

Another former Mobile police chief, Paul Prine, has set March 14 as the date when he will announce whether or not he plans to run. Prine, who was fired in April 2024, has filed a civil suit over his dismissal and the investigation that preceded it.

Drummond was a Mobile Press-Register reporter before spending a decade working for the Mobile County administration, serving as director of the Public Affairs and Community Services Department.

After Sam Jones was elected mayor in 2005, she served as executive director of administrative services and public relations in his administration. She won the Alabama House District 103 seat in 2014 and chairs the Alabama House Democratic Caucus.

“I think the experience that I’ve had in county, city, and now in state government has prepared me greatly,” she said. “Because the city depends upon all of those entities and I think that’s why the other day somebody called me a trifecta. I think I am a trifecta. Public service is hard. You’re giving yourselves yourself to people and I’ve been doing that for a very, very long time, so yes, I’m prepared.”

Among those present for the announcement was Ala. Rep. Adline Clarke, who said “this didn’t happen yesterday. This has been a plan in the making for four years.”