Jefferson County Attorney Theo Lawson is in the running for a new position, but his name’s not on the ballot.

It’s Yolanda Lawson, the county attorney’s wife of 11 years, who is running for mayor of Pleasant Grove. If she is elected to that city’s top position, her spouse would thus answer to a new title.

“I would be the First Dude,” Theo Lawson said with a laugh after the County Commission’s committee meeting on Tuesday. “I would be the First Dude.”

While Yolanda Lawson, a Pleasant Grove City Council member and a principal assistant city attorney with the city of Birmingham, is seeking a new political office, she said her spouse is very equipped for the position in which he could find himself.

“His experience with law enforcement and public service, his discipline, his deep commitment to community and to safety, his values — all of that aligns with my vision for our city,” she said. “He’s currently a firearms instructor. He’s a retired law school professor. He teaches at the police academy (and) his current role in public service, all of that gives me the opportunity to have someone that will support my vision for the city.”

Yolanda Lawson announced her candidacy for mayor last week during an event at The Venue on Morris in downtown Birmingham. She would be the first woman elected mayor of Pleasant Grove.

The other Pleasant Grove mayoral candidate is council member Kevin “KD” Dunn. Each candidate is Black and would be the first Black mayor of the city.

“The pressure is not race related for me,” Yolanda Lawson said. “The pressure is a good pressure. It’s a pressure that allows me to know that my competition is going to be only limited by what I can achieve for our community as a whole.

“It’s not about color for me,” she continued, “while that is a historical thing that will happen when I’m elected.”

Yolanda Lawson will have lived in Pleasant Grove for 25 years in September. She said her desire to see some things in the city change for the better prompted her bid for mayor.

“Some things I saw in our community I wanted to see come back,” the candidate said. “Some of the things that attracted me to the community that were affected by the (2011) tornado — I wanted to be a part of just improving our community and making it better where it was falling short or enhancing the community where it was productive.”

Yolanda Lawson said the “hometown community feel” was affected when numerous families were uprooted by the 2011 tornado.

“Some families just left, (leaving) some gaps in the community that we knew when we first moved out here,” she said. “It was an effort to bring some of that and close some of (those gaps.)”

More information about Yolanda Lawson is available at Lawson4PGMayor.com. The election will be Aug. 26.