Community organizer Jasmine Brown has entered the 2026 race for Pensacola mayor, joining former City Council President Ann Hill as the only candidates who have filed so far with the Escambia County Supervisor of Elections. Incumbent Mayor D.C. Reeves has not filed for reelection or publicly said whether he will run.
Brown, a lifelong Pensacola resident who identifies as a socialist, announced her candidacy on social media with a message that City Hall should tilt its priorities toward working people rather than developers.
“As a socialist," she wrote, "I believe that the government should be a tool for the people, not a playground for the rich and well-connected.”
Her campaign centers on affordability. In her announcement, Brown linked everyday strain to the cost of housing, electricity, and downtown parking and argued that public resources have too often supported private projects. She criticized local leaders for, in her words, “cut[ting] deals with the millionaire executives of Florida Power and Light.”
Electricity rates in Florida are set by the state’s Public Service Commission, not by individual cities, but municipalities such as Pensacola do negotiate franchise agreements that govern a utility’s use of public rights-of-way.
Brown’s public record suggests the campaign flows from years of organizing. In an April 2023 article, the alternative weekly Inweekly identified Brown as a co-founder of the Pensacola Abortion Rights Taskforce (PART), a grassroots group that formed after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
“Abortion shouldn’t be a taboo topic,” Brown told the paper. “In order to get more people to advocate for safe abortion access, we have to change the culture. We want to create a safe space for people to share their stories with abortion and normalize it in our conversations.”
Brown has also been active in immigration-rights protests. During a downtown march last year criticizing federal immigration enforcement, NBC 15 identified her as an organizer and a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a national Marxist-Leninist organization active in protest movements across the U.S.
“We will not stand by our communities getting terrorized,” she said at the time.
At an earlier PSL rally, in March of 2023, Brown spoke out against white supremacy.
“Our community is made up of different groups; each of us deserves safety and dignity in our city,” she said from the stage. “We will not allow Nazis or fascists to be empowered or emboldened by the hatred and division they want to sow among us.”
The PSL, founded in 2004, has been involved in protests over police violence, housing, and U.S. foreign policy. Critics describe the group as far-left, while supporters see it as a grassroots alternative to the two-party system.
Affordability has dominated local politics during Reeves’s tenure. The mayor has emphasized housing and cost of living in City Hall’s long-range strategy, "Strive to Thrive: Pensacola 2035," and his allies point to a pipeline of neighborhood projects and a comparatively low city millage rate. But in historically Black neighborhoods, some residents have said the benefits have not matched the rhetoric — concerns that have surfaced most visibly in debates over the Fricker Center renovation.
The multimillion-dollar project, funded through state and federal grants, has sparked tension over trust and inclusion. At public meetings this summer, residents questioned whether the upgrades would serve nearby families or simply displace them.
Mayor Reeves has defended the project, but acknowledged the distrust, saying “I don’t expect … that trust is built in one meeting,” and noting that “investment itself can fuel anxiety.”
Brown’s campaign fits into a broader trend of socialist and left-progressive candidates running for local office nationwide. Across Florida and the U.S., organizers aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America and the Party for Socialism and Liberation have fielded candidates in recent cycles, from Miami-Dade County Commission hopefuls to New York Assembly member Zohran Mamdani, who has used his platform to advocate rent control and tenant protections.
The Pensacola mayor’s race is nonpartisan. Qualifying for the 2026 ballot is scheduled next year.
