MOBILE, Alabama — Local lawyer Herndon Inge III was a last-minute replacement candidate for the state Board of Education, accepting an appointment to be the Democratic nominee in May when Cecil Gardner dropped out.

But the lifelong Mobilian said he is no Johnny-come-lately when it comes to children’s issues or serving his community.

“I’ve been doing this for 45 years,” he said. “My life has been about public service.”

Inge, 62, faces Republican Tracy Roberts, who has served on the Baldwin County school board since 2004. The winner of the November election will serve a four-year term and earn $1,500 a month, plus $10 per meeting and travel costs.

Inge will try to win in a district that became more heavily Republican when the state Legislature carved out a swath of Mobile County extending into downtown and placed it into District 5 to the north. Lawmakers said the move was necessary to maintain the demographic balance in the majority-black school board district. But the effect on District 1 in southwest Alabama is that it will have fewer minority voters, who overwhelmingly support Democrats.

Inge, however, is undeterred.

“I think it’s like Avis rental car. We’re No. 2 and we try harder,” he said. “I’m going to outwork the imbalance that the Legislature created. I’m going to outthink it.”

Inge said he is highly qualified for the position — a proven leader capable of making serious decisions facing southwest Alabama schools. He touted his family and professional experience. Married for 32 years with adult children, he has been practicing family law for 37 years.

“I am a trained advocate for other people’s children,” he said. “What we need is thorough, well-reasoned, well-researched solutions, not sound clips,” he said.

Inge said he opposes charter schools, quasi-independent public schools that the Legislature ultimately rejected this year after intense debate. He said curriculum should focus on the “three Rs.”

On the evolution-versus-creationism debate, he said, “Evolution is not a theory; it’s a fact.” But he also said it is important to have compassion for folks with deeply held religious beliefs.

He called for a more active role by state school board members in participating in legislative debates over school budgets and other issues affecting education.

“They’ve got to go to the Legislature and lobby. They don’t like to lobby,” he said.

Inge served as a captain in the Judge Advocate General Corps of the Air Force Reserve, and was a special assistant attorney general for the state. He also has served as a state fair hearing officer, and was a deputy district attorney for the state.

Inge is past chairman of the Family Law Section of the Alabama State Bar Association and has been fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.

Inge was selected as outstanding young man of America in both 1978 and 1980, and was included in the Best Lawyers in America in 2010, 2011 and 2012. He was lawyer of the year in family law in Mobile in 2012, and was selected as Mobile’s arts patron of the year in 2011.

He has been selected to serve two terms on the board of trustees of the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn., and president of the Mobile chapter of Cumberland School of Law Alumni Association.

Inge provided a long list of other community and civic groups in which he has served, including the Mobile Community Development Project; the Mobile Community Organization; the Mobile Bar Association; the Girl Scout Council of Southwest Alabama; Friends of the Public Library; Playhouse in the Park; The Crescent Film Society; and his parish church.