The 2026 election cycle is proving that national politics is becoming more polarizing at all levels of government, and in a 50-50 city like Pensacola, partisanship is just below the surface even if the races are officially nonpartisan.
Although political parties aren’t officially involved in the Pensacola mayor’s race, the 2026 candidates are signaling their party leanings more openly than in previous mayoral races.
Incumbent Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves has campaigned for Republican gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds. Jasmine Brown is campaigning as a socialist. Jermaine Williams has touted the endorsement of the Escambia County Black Democratic Caucus and Democratic state Rep. Angie Nixon, who is running for the U.S. Senate. Alicia Trawick helped organize a local No Kings Day protest against President Donald Trump and has picked up endorsements from regional labor unions like the Northwest Florida Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, that back Democrats at the national level.
Public voter registration records show that Ann Hill is a registered Democrat and Eric Shorter is a registered Republican.
In recent state and national elections, city voters show that the city is nearly equally divided between Republicans and Democrats. For their part, the candidates themselves say they believe partisan politics aren’t a factor when it comes to deciding who is the best person to run the city.
Pensacola is a 50-50 city
In 2024, 50.2% of Pensacola city voters chose Kamala Harris as their choice for president of the United States. Donald Trump only won 48% of the city vote even though Trump’s total in all of Escambia County was 59% of the vote.
During the same election, Democrat Gay Valimont won 54.8% of the city vote against Republican U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, who won reelection but would later resign. Gulf Breeze News Publisher Lisa Newell, running as a Democrat, won 53.4% of the city vote against State Sen. Don Gaetz.
Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Scott won 50.5% of city voters while his Democratic opponent, former U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, finished with 47.4% in the city.
State Rep. Alex Andrade won the city with a plurality of the vote share at 48.3% as he faced two other candidates, Democrat Haley “Hale” Morrissette at 45.4% and non-party affiliated candidate Kim Kline at 6.3%.
The election in 2022 showed a similar pattern, but one more in Republicans’ favor, with Gov. Ron DeSantis winning the city at 53% of the vote, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio winning the city with 52.3% and Andrade winning the city at 52.7%. Democratic candidate for Congress Rebekah Jones won the city with 53.8% against Gaetz.
Voting in state and national elections shows a clear geographic trend too, with most of the Republican-majority areas on the northeast side of the Bayou Texar and Carpenter Creek and the Democratic-majority areas on the southeast side.
The 2022 election year was the same year Reeves won his first term as mayor, but Reeves faced a smaller electorate as the nonpartisan rules city elections operate under allowed Reeves to win outright during the August primary when he won 51.1% of the vote.
Turnout plays a role in what the electorate looks like. In the 2024 general election, turnout in the city was 78%. In the 2022 general election, city turnout was 56%. In the August 2022 primary that saw Reeves elected, city turnout was only about 37%.
Does partisanship matter?
Pensacola’s 2010 City Charter, which made the mayor’s office the chief executive of the city, requires city elections to be nonpartisan. Reeves is the third mayor elected under the charter and the third who has been open about his association with the Republican Party.
Reeves points out he’s come under criticism from both the left and the right and that he believes his track record shows his administration makes decisions with all 55,000 residents in mind.
“This is a nonpartisan position, and you should be making 50-50 decisions in what you think is right, not what you think will politically advance you, or that is better for the party, or that feeds into national politics,” Reeves said.
Shorter said he doesn’t believe partisanship should have anything to do with city politics, but he criticized Reeves saying he doesn’t think the mayor should be endorsing anyone for governor in a party primary.
“Some things you have to know when to just stay mum on, you don’t have to say anything one way or another,” Shorter said.
Reeves said that doesn’t mean he can’t give the opinion that he thinks Byron Donalds can be a great governor, but that opinion shouldn’t affect the decisions he makes in running the city.
“I can say after four years there isn’t any decision that I’ve made as mayor where I didn’t do what I thought was the right thing to do or because of some political potential consequence,” Reeves said.
The New York Times reported last month that federal officials admitted to canceling Biden-era grants for states that voted against Trump. Meanwhile, Reeves has brought in $200 million in state and federal funds to the city — with many of those grants created under Biden-era programs — but they are now being administered by Republican administrations at the state and federal level.
Even when Pensacola has come under fire from Republicans like Gov. Ron DeSantis’ DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) report, those criticisms that largely appeared to focus on culture war issues now appear half-hearted. During an event in Pensacola on Aug. 12, where DeSantis was presenting the city with another $9 million grant for a jobs project at the Port, he appeared not to remember that his administration had been critical of the city.
“I don’t remember anything about Pensacola (in the report), so I’m not going to say anything good, bad, or different,” DeSantis said.
Reeves said that the polarized dialogue in online social media spaces can lead to misperceptions, as people give weight to comments that aren’t even true about what the city is doing.
“In 2026, we have a very amplified partisan world in our country that we’re living in, and I think it’s our job to do the best that we can to navigate that things stay nonpartisan.”
Local issues matter more
Except for Shorter, the other candidates could appear to be coming against Reeves from his political left, but they say their on-the-ground experience has been different.
Williams said once people hear him talk about the issues, he believes people won’t think he’s a Democrat or a Republican but that his party is Pensacola.
“I’ve had people that come in close-minded with me until they hear me talk, until they get a sense of me,” Williams said.
Williams has been a been vocal critic of Reeves’ administration, but he makes almost the same argument Reeves does that social media will give people a false impression of how divided the city actually is once people talk face to face.
Williams said he’s knocked on doors in neighborhoods like Cordova Park, which Trump won in 2024 by nearly 22 points, and he might assume voters have certain views he disagrees with.
“Then (after) conversation when I leave their doorstep, I’m like, wow, this city is not as divided as social media may make you think it is,” Williams said.
Trawick said as she’s knocking on doors, she’s been surprised at how little partisanship has come up in conversations with voters.
“The nonpartisan mayor’s race has been nice,” Trawick said. “It’s like a breath of fresh air because I’ve been able to talk to somebody, and we start off kind of on the same page. We’re not getting into political culture wars or partisan politics.”
Trawick describes her own political beliefs as moderate and says that being willing to work with people on all sides is the only way to accomplish anything once you’re in office.
“I believe moderation is the way to go for everything, especially in politics,” Trawick said. “I think you know when I’m elected, I’m going to be a mayor for everybody. I have to represent everyone, whether I agree with them, disagree with them, whether they agree with me or not.”
Is Pensacola ready for socialism?
Brown is one candidate who stands out as she is the most open about her political partisan leanings and she sees it playing a role in city government.
Brown is an active member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a recognized political party in Florida. Brown has been open about her views and calls her mayoral campaign a “movement for socialism.”
“I am a representative, although again, I’m not running as PSL for this race,” Brown said.
Despite that, the national Party for Socialism and Liberation has featured Brown in its own social media post that highlights PSL candidates running for office around the country in 2026.
In recent years, the local PSL chapter has become one of the most responsive local political groups able to quickly organize protests over both local and national issues.
Candidates like U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani have gained popularity in national Democratic politics and boosted socialist ideas. Those candidates who describe themselves as Democratic Socialists have made clear they aren’t the same as groups like the PSL.
PSL is an openly revolutionary organization that is critical of trying to change the system inside the Democratic Party, while Democrats like Ocasio-Cortez and Mamdani, who’ve seen rising popularity and won elections, have all said they back a liberal pluralist democracy.
PSL believes its policy goals can only be enacted through a revolution that dismantles capitalism completely to create first a socialist government with the goal of creating a communist society, according to its official program. The party’s education section has material that praises Vladimir Lenin, the first leader of the Soviet Union.
Brown acknowledges her view of socialism isn’t one that can be accomplished through the ballot box.
“You can’t vote socialism in,” Brown said. “…It’s an entirely different system than the system that we have now.”
Brown said in her view socialism cannot “be a cog in a capitalist system.”
She doesn’t believe she can change the system as mayor, but she believes she can help build their “working-class consciousness” and “socialist consciousness” of what could be possible. She said she wants the city to help organize for them to be able to exercise their power.
“I’m fortunate that with this campaign, I’m able to kind of put a face, put a name to what socialism is, which is people power,” Brown said. “It’s our resources being put toward the needs of the people and our environment.”
Jim Little is the City Government Accountability Reporter for the Pensacola News Journal. If you have a news tip, please send it to jwlittle@pnj.com.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola mayor race is nonpartisan. Is that possible in a 50-50 city?
Reporting by Jim Little, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
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By Jim Little, Pensacola News Journal | USA TODAY Network
