Shelby County Commissioner Tami Sawyer kicked off her campaign for the Memphis mayor’s office Friday with a call for the city to re-establish a relationship with the local public education system and a larger investment in public transit and minority and women-owned businesses.

If elected in October, one of Sawyer’s immediate priorities would be a fiscal year 2021 “equity budget that re-prioritizes the way we distribute our dollars and ensure that all neighborhoods receive an equitable share of resources,” she said.

Sawyer, a 36-year-old freshman county commissioner who just took office last year, held a news conference at the woman-owned business Makeda’s Homemade Cookies on Friday, also International Women’s Day. If her campaign is successful, Sawyer would be the first woman in the city’s 200-year history to take the Memphis mayor’s office.

Sawyer made official her run for the Memphis mayor’s office in a YouTube video Thursday morning, with the tagline “We can’t wait.” An overwhelmingly female group of supporters flanked Sawyer on Friday with signs bearing the slogan.

“You may ask why now, why not in 2023 or 2027? But we are standing here to say that we can’t wait,” Sawyer said. “We are two years from an economic downturn that will disproportionately affect communities of color and women. We can’t wait for some other time or some other person to make deeper commitments to transit so people can get to work. To have buses that run on time, to have bikes in schools. To have ride shares that don’t require a credit or a debit card only.”

Sawyer is challenging incumbent Mayor Jim Strickland, who officially launched his re-election bid in January. Sawyer poked Friday at one of Strickland’s common refrains — “Memphis has momentum.”

“We are a city that touts momentum, with new jobs and new developments,” Sawyer said. “But here stands a group that recognizes that momentum doesn’t reach the majority of Memphis.”

Former Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton, the city's first elected black mayor, has also announced his plan to make a run at returning to the mayor’s office.

Small business owner Lemichael Wilson has also said he plans to run for the city of Memphis’ top office. The mayoral field may well widen before the July filing deadline. The Memphis City Council’s 13 seats will also be on the Oct. 3 ballot.

THE 9:01:What Tami Sawyer's run for mayor means for Memphis

Sawyer said Friday she has the “utmost respect” for Herenton and Strickland.

“But again, 30 years of service between the two of them and we’re still in the same situation,” Sawyer said.

Sawyer outlined Friday a progressive, equity-focused platform and called for a “holistic plan” that charts a course for the future of Memphis and reaches areas like Hickory Hill, Whitehaven and Smokey City.

Sawyer also wants to ramp up ongoing efforts to increase city contracts with minority- and women-owned businesses.

Strickland has publicized the jump in city spending with minority- and women-owned businesses from 12 percent to 24 percent since 2016.

Despite that increase, Sawyer called the current figures “staggeringly low,” and said that spending should be more closely aligned with Memphis’ demographic makeup.

“What I want to see is a number that’s closer to the 70 percent,” she said. “That’s what we’re shooting for.”

Indivisible Memphis Co-Chair Emily Fulmer, who introduced Sawyer on Friday, said it’s time to ramp up the number of women in positions of power in the city.

“It’s important to me that we trust black women and we elect black women to lead us forward,” Fulmer said.

One of Sawyer's first priorities would be to "re-establish a relationship" between the city and the public school system.

"Our public safety budget should be part of our education budget," Sawyer said in response to where she would draw funding from for an additional Memphis city financial commitment to education. "Because we can’t put more police on the streets without putting more books in our schools."

Memphis city leaders have recently committed to a recurring infusion of dollars into a needs-based pre-kindergarten program.

The city school system gave up its charter nearly a decade ago and merged with Shelby County Schools, shifting the burden for education funding solely to county government.

Shelby County School Board member Miska Clay-Bibbs echoed the need for more of a commitment to funding schools by the city of Memphis.

"Memphis needs a leader that doesn't need a mandate to do what's right," Clay-Bibbs said.

Jamie Munks covers Memphis city government and politics for The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at jamie.munks@commercialappeal.com. Follow her on Twitter @journo_jamie_.