Former Mayor Derek Dobies announced April 1 that he is running again for the Jackson mayor’s seat.
Dobies served as mayor from 2017 to 2021, when he stepped down and endorsed current Mayor Daniel Mahoney. Before becoming mayor, he served six years as a city council member representing Ward 6 and four years as vice mayor.
Dobies currently serves as treasurer of the Jackson Public Schools Board of Education.
When Mahoney announced in October 2025 that he would not seek another term, Dobies said he spoke with his daughter about running again.
“I got elected mayor the year after she was born,” Dobies said. “My daughter’s a fourth grader now. She encouraged me to do it.”
Mahoney also encouraged Dobies to run and has endorsed his candidacy.
“When I stepped down, I asked him to step up,” Dobies said. “So it is kind of ironic and a little bit funny that he’s choosing to also step down and not seek another term. I appreciate his support. And we continue to put the city first.”
After announcing his campaign, Dobies received online comments questioning whether it was an April Fools’ prank.
“When I decided to not seek a third term back in 2021, I made that announcement on April 1,” Dobies said. “Some people thought that it was a joke. And getting into things this year, it aligned where this was a good day to get stuff out there and also have some fun with it.”
He emphasized that the campaign is serious and that he wants to build on progress from his previous term.
“The 100 homes project that’s been incredibly popular across the city is a result of some of the fruits of that work that I put in in my second term,” Dobies said, “and I’m excited to continue the progress that the city has made.”
“There’s certainly more work to be done around fixing our streets, around creating more affordable housing options, just creating affordability across the city in a number of different aspects,” he added.
Dobies said he hopes to boost economic development by attracting more families and businesses to Jackson.
“The best validators for attracting more residents and more businesses to want to locate here is the businesses and residents that we have here,” he said. “Every time someone new comes here, or someone that’s not from Jackson comes down here, I get a lot of compliments, and they talk to me about like, ‘Wow, this is beautiful. Downtown Jackson has a lot going for it.’”
Dobies is the only candidate so far to announce a campaign for the mayoral election. Other candidates have until April 21 to file.
