Lumon May pre-filed on Aug. 29 for Escambia County Commission District 3. The seat is currently held by Marie Young who was appointed to the position by Republican Gov. Jeb Bush in 2002. Since District 3 was established as a district with a majority of minority voters in 1983, the district has had only two commissioners – Young and Willie Junior.
Marie Young, who turns 77 on Aug. 31, has announced that she will not run for a third term.
Lumon is considered the favorite in the crowded field. This week he gathered nearly 400 petition signatures as he visited churches in his district. The advantage May has is that he was born and raised in District 3, living his early years in Morris Court, the oldest public housing development in Pensacola.
Lumon has spent most of his adult life working with inner-city youth, organizing and running youth sports first for the Salvation Army and today for the City of Pensacola. Several of his players have earned college scholarships.
He still lives nearby Morris Court and is highly visible because of his more than 25 years of work and service in the community and his campaign for the Florida House District 3 seat in 2008.
No African-American candidate in Pensacola history has earned as much support as Lumon did in 2008. The House race included 18 of the 21 precincts that currently exist in Escambia County Commission District 3. May earned 73 percent of the vote in those precincts in 2008 and captured 16 of the 18 precincts against an incumbent.
Lumon May helped Mayor Ashton Hayward win the District 3 precincts during the 2010 mayoral election. Many of those same precincts had voted heavily for incumbent Mayor Mike Wiggins in the primary. He recently visited the White House and met with President Barack Obama’s advisors on community initiatives the president wants to start in the upcoming year.