Alicia Trawick, a Pensacola native who works in disaster recovery and local government consulting, has entered the 2026 race for mayor with a platform centered on affordability, infrastructure — and a proposal to fundamentally change how City Hall is run.
In announcing her campaign, Trawick called for rolling back Pensacola’s strong-mayor system and returning to a council-manager form of government, arguing the current structure concentrates too much power in the mayor’s office and limits the City Council’s role.
“Our city council’s limited authority contributes to many of the challenges we face today,” Trawick said in her campaign announcement. “Pensacola needs a governance structure that encourages collaboration, transparency, and better outcomes for residents. We also need a mayor who is not bought by developers.”
Her entry adds another contender to a race that is beginning to coalesce around growth, affordability and public trust — and around a question voters last confronted about 15 years ago: who should actually run the city.
What the strong-mayor system means
Under Pensacola’s current city charter, the mayor serves as the city’s chief executive, overseeing day-to-day administration, preparing the annual budget and appointing senior leadership, subject to council approval in some cases. The mayor also has veto power over ordinances passed by the City Council.
That model differs from a council-manager system, used in many U.S. cities, in which the council hires a professional city manager to oversee operations. In that structure, the council sets policy, and the manager runs the government, while the mayor’s role is typically more limited and focused on political leadership.
Pensacola adopted the strong-mayor system following a charter revision approved by voters in the early 2010s. Mayor D.C. Reeves, elected in 2022, is only the third mayor to serve under that framework.
A return to council-manager government would require amending the city charter — a process that ultimately would have to be approved by voters.
Affordability, infrastructure, and cost of living
Trawick’s platform emphasizes rising costs in Pensacola, from housing and insurance to taxes and utilities. She frames affordability as a threat to the city’s long-term stability and to residents who have lived here for decades.
“You shouldn’t have to move out of Pensacola to afford Pensacola,” she said.
Her campaign materials call for expanding housing options, addressing homelessness, improving public safety, and investing in infrastructure, including stormwater systems designed to reduce flooding. She also points to transportation access and parking as areas in need of reform.
Many of those issues overlap with “Strive to Thrive: Pensacola 2035,” the citywide strategic plan Reeves has promoted as a roadmap for his administration. The plan’s eight headline goals include “Attainable Housing for All Income Levels,” “Safe Streets for All Mobilities,” and “Resilient Waterfronts and Neighborhoods,” along with priorities around walkable districts, public spaces, and honoring neighborhood culture and legacy.
Trawick’s professional background is rooted in emergency management and disaster recovery. Her LinkedIn résumé lists her as a project manager in disaster recovery at Witt O’Brien’s, a national crisis and resilience consulting firm that was acquired in 2022 by Brazil-based Ambipar Group’s Ambipar Response division. Before that, her résumé lists roles including hazard-mitigation project work with FCMC Management Consulting and emergency-management and program roles with Florida agencies, including the Florida Department of Health, the Florida Department of Transportation, and the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity.
A record of progressive advocacy
Beyond her professional résumé, Trawick has been active in progressive organizing in Pensacola in recent years.
She has appeared publicly as an organizer or spokesperson at protests opposing President Donald Trump and criticizing state and federal policies on issues ranging from budgets to civil rights. That activism has connected her to broader progressive networks locally and nationally.
Those connections are reflected in her campaign operation. Trawick’s campaign manager, Dianne Krumel, has a long history in local Democratic politics and activist causes. Krumel previously ran as a Democrat for Florida House District 2 in 2020 and has been a prominent advocate in local fights over public land and coastal development, including the “Save Pensacola Beach” campaign. Krumel also currently serves as the Escambia County Democratic Party’s state committeewoman.
Her campaign fundraising reflects those ties. Trawick is raising money through ActBlue, a national online fundraising platform most commonly used by Democratic and progressive candidates. While Pensacola’s mayoral race is nonpartisan, ActBlue is widely associated with left-leaning donor networks and grassroots fundraising.
Entering a race shaped by the Baptist site debate
Trawick enters the race as redevelopment of the former Baptist Hospital campus has become one of the most visible fault lines in local politics.
In recent months, organized activists have warned that large-scale redevelopment of the roughly 50-acre site could accelerate displacement in nearby Westside neighborhoods. Much of that opposition has been driven by organizers with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, which is also fielding its own mayoral candidate, Jasmine Brown.
Brown, who identifies as a socialist, has made housing affordability and opposition to what she describes as developer-driven decision-making central themes of her campaign.
Mayor Reeves has rejected claims that the city is advancing redevelopment plans behind closed doors. He has argued that the city’s work related to the Baptist site has so far been limited to early-stage planning and community engagement, and that no developer or redevelopment plan has been selected.
Trawick has participated in the broader Baptist campus debate, but her public statements have focused most directly on a separate fight over heritage oak trees slated for removal on the edge of the former hospital property, where a private developer is pursuing an affordable senior-housing project. Trawick has challenged the city’s handling of the tree-removal approval, arguing the required process was not followed and that residents were not given adequate notice. Reeves has said the developer sought the permit through the proper channels and that the tagged trees were tied to the project’s footprint and access needs.
A crowded but still-forming field
Trawick joins a mayoral field that already includes former City Council President Ann Hill and community organizer Brown, in addition to Reeves.
Hill announced her candidacy last year with a platform she calls “The Ann Plan,” a wide-ranging checklist of priorities that includes free downtown parking, reopening Bay Bluffs Park, and rebuilding the Malcolm Yonge Center. Hill has framed her campaign as a push for faster action and greater responsiveness from City Hall.
Brown entered the race earlier with a platform focused on housing, equity, and grassroots control over public resources, aligning her campaign closely with organized left-wing activism.
