By Barnett Wright and Ryan Michael | The Birmingham Times
Birmingham voters on Tuesday filled the remaining seats on the 2025-2029 City Council by ousting an incumbent, re-electing one member and filling the panel’s only remaining vacant seat.
The 2025 municipal elections wrapped up with runoff elections in Districts 4, 8 and 9 that saw all the winners earn at least 55 percent of the vote, according to unofficial results with 99 percent of the vote in. The results are unofficial until certified by election officials.
Turnout was a paltry 7 percent.
In District 4, Brian Gunn, a political newcomer and who works with the nonprofit Measures for Justice, defeated incumbent J.T. Moore, with 676 votes, or 67.7 percent to Moore’s 323 votes or 32.3 percent.
In District 8, Birmingham Board of Education member Sonja Smith defeated April Myers Williams, a former four-term Board of Education member with 867 votes, or 55.6 percent to Williams’ 692 votes, or 44.39 percent.
In District 9 seat, current Public Safety Chair LaTonya Tate defeated former Councilmember John Hilliard in a rematch from 2021 with 921 votes, or 55.6 percent to Hilliard’s 734 votes, or 44.35 percent.
District 4
Gunn is the only candidate this election cycle to unseat an incumbent Birmingham City Council member. At his Election Night Watch Party in the Woodlawn Marketplace, Gunn pointed to his ground game for the decisive victory.
“We’ve knocked on 7,000 doors from February through October. We made more than 5,000 phone calls, and we’ve been consistently in touch with community members … and I think that personal touch has made all the difference,” said Gunn, who also picked up key endorsements from Joseph Holt and Darryl Williams – two of his former opponents in the general election.
The councilor-elect said he already knows what some of his priorities will be. “As you look around District Four, there are so many vacant lots,” he said. “How can we make sure that we’re holding those property owners that are neglecting their properties accountable?”
“The second thing is economic development,” he said. “We need to make sure that we are properly resourced in our neighborhoods, to make sure that we have the grocery stores in District 4” which includes Airport Highlands, Brownsville Heights, Collegeville, East Birmingham, Harriman Park, Inglenook, Killough Springs, Norwood, Roebuck and Woodlawn.
District 8
In District 8, Smith picked up pivotal endorsements from Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin; Jefferson County Commissioner Sheila Tyson and state Reps. Travis Hendrix and Kelvin Datcher.
Other endorsements came from labor and community groups that included CWA Local 3902, LiUNA Local 559 and the Jefferson County Progressive Democratic Council, Inc. Since the runoff, she has added endorsements from the Birmingham Association of Realtors, among others.
“I am humbled and honored by the trust District 8 has placed in me,” Smith said in a press release. “Tonight’s result belongs to our volunteers, neighbors, and community leaders who knocked doors, made calls, and believed that together we can build a safer, stronger District 8. I’m ready to get to work — investing in youth opportunities, empowering neighborhoods, and supporting small businesses.”
District 8 includes Belview Heights, Bush Hills, Central Park, College Hills, Ensley, Ensley Highlands, Fairview, Graymont, Rising West-Princeton and Tuxedo Heights
District 9
In District 9, current Public Safety Chair Tate campaigned on her violence reduction efforts including hospital-based violence intervention programs, mentorships, community-facing organizations and investments in youth programming.
She also never changed since first being elected in 2021, she said.
“My style never changed, the work never changed,” she told The Birmingham Times Wednesday morning. “And my ultimate goal, being in a runoff … was to stay on doors, stay on the ground and just engage the voters. Talk to people that mattered the most and those were the voters, making sure that I stayed true to who I was … I didn’t make promises I didn’t keep.”
She stressed on the campaign trail that homicides in Birmingham were down nearly 50 percent from record breaking levels set last year and many point to the violence prevention programs she brought to the city.
“My goal as the first Black female to chair the [council’s] public safety committee was to work with the administration and to reduce violence,” she said.
When Tate took on the role as Chair of Public Safety [in 2021] she looked beyond Birmingham and studied proven anti-violence models from cities like Newark and Baltimore, she said. Among the programs she introduced to Birmingham were One Hood, an initiative that trains certified “violence interrupters” and “credible messengers” community members, often formerly justice-involved, who mediate conflict and offer alternatives to at-risk youth, a program she said came from Newark, New Jersey.
Tate pointed to several other initiatives that she believes resonated with voters.
“The mayor gave [each council district $3 million] I put $1.2 million back into the community to expand critical repair for legacy homeowners along with what the city has done with critical repair along with investing in our parks, investing in schools, investing in food insecurity,” she said.
As for what’s next Tate said “it goes beyond city resources. It’s the partnerships that I have been able to foster on the federal level … and even the relationships I have with those in Montgomery, you have to be able to work across the aisle to get things done.”
The 2025-2029 City Council will be seated Tuesday Oct. 28 as follows: Clinton Woods, District 1; Hunter Williams, District 2; Josh Vasa, District 3; Brian Gunn, District 4; Darrell O’Quinn, District 5; Crystal Smitherman, District 6; Wardine Alexander, District 7; Sonja Smith, District 8 and LaTonya Tate, District 9.
The Birmingham Board of Education also had 3 runoffs.
District 2 — Incumbent Neonta Williams defeated Terry Michal with 53 percent of the vote at 226-197.
District 8 — Antwon Womack defeated Pamela Bass with 50.8 percent of the vote 755-730.
District 9 — Yamika Foy defeated Eric Hall with 69 percent of the vote, 1,126-485.
Updated at 11:34 on 10/8/2025 to include quotes from Tate.
