By Mike Cason 

For more than a decade, the Alabama Democratic Party has struggled to be competitive in statewide races, and the lean times for the party are reflected on the ballot for Tuesday’s primary.

Democrats have no candidates in seven of the statewide races.

Democrats are competing in the biggest contests, however. There are six Democratic candidates for governor and three for the U.S. Senate seat that Sen. Richard Shelby is leaving after this year.

There are contested races for Democrats in three of Alabama’s seven Congressional districts. Overall, Democrats have candidates in five of the seven districts, including incumbent Congresswoman Terri Sewell, who is running for a seventh term in the 7th District and has no Democratic opponent.

Democrats hold no statewide offices in Alabama. The last Democratic win in a statewide race was Doug Jones’ win over Roy Moore in the special election for the U.S. Senate in 2017. Before that, the last Democrat to win a statewide race was Lucy Baxley, who beat Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh for president of the Public Service Commission in 2008.

The seven statewide races with no Democratic candidates this year are for lieutenant governor, state treasurer, agriculture commissioner, state auditor, a seat on the Alabama Supreme Court, and two seats on the Public Service Commission.

U.S. SENATE

Will Boyd

Will Boyd is a minister with multiple college degrees, including an engineering degree from the University of South Carolina, a master’s in business administration from Regis University, a doctorate in religion from Christian Bible College, and a doctorate in organization and management from Capella University, according to the bio on his campaign website. Boyd is the presiding bishop of Zion Ministries and is pastor of St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church in Florence.

Boyd was the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in 2018. Boyd received 39% of the vote in a loss to Republican Will Ainsworth.

Boyd ran for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate in the special election in 2017, the race won by Doug Jones. Boyd has served as chairman of the Lauderdale County Democratic Executive Committee and on the State Democratic Executive Committee.

Boyd and his wife, Vida Boyd, live in Hoover and have three children.

Brandaun Dean

Brandaun Dean was elected mayor of Brighton in August 2016 and became the city’s youngest mayor at age 24. His time in office was short.

In September 2017, a judge ruled in a civil lawsuit that 46 absentee votes were fraudulently cast for Dean. Dean denied committing absentee ballot fraud. But the ruling erased the margin that had allowed Dean to win without a runoff. The judge ordered Dean to vacate the office and ordered a runoff to fill the vacancy.

Dean chose not to participate in the runoff.

Dean told al.com in February that he had experienced homelessness and did not have a permanent residence.

Lanny Jackson

Lanny Jackson is an Army veteran who ran for mayor of Birmingham in 2017, finishing far back in the pack in a race won by Mayor Randall Woodfin.

According to his campaign website, Jackson, 68, is a Birmingham native who served in the U.S. Army for 21 years and retired with the rank of first sergeant.

Jackson is retired from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he was a supervisor for building services. Jackson said he has 46 years experience in leadership and management.

Jackson has been married to his wife Carolyn for 48 years. They have two sons, eight granddaughters and one grandson.

GOVERNOR

Yolanda Flowers

Yolanda Flowers is a retired rehabilitation specialist who announced her candidacy for governor on MLK Day at an event that was livestreamed on Facebook.

Flowers grew up in Birmingham, graduated from Woodlawn High School and moved to Tennessee, where she raised her family before completing her college education. Flowers earned a bachelor’s degree in audiology from the University of Tennessee in 2007 and a master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling from UT two years later. She worked in vocational rehabilitation after previous jobs as a reading instructor, a teacher’s assistant, and an assistant speech pathologist.

Flowers’ and her family moved back to Birmingham in 2015. She has 12 grandchildren and five great grandchildren. She said she loves Alabama and wants it to be a better place for them raise their kids.

Education is one of the main topics in Flowers’ “reconstructing Alabama” platform. Flowers said schools need better funding, better trained teachers, smaller classrooms, and psychological evaluations for all students. She said she’ll propose healthcare reforms to help low-income, working families, the elderly, and small businesses. She said changes are needed in a criminal justice system that she said is plagued by inequality.

Malika Sanders Fortier

Sen. Malika Sanders Fortier of Selma is a lawyer who was elected to the Senate in 2018.

Fortier is the daughter of longtime state Sen. Hank Sanders and lawyer and activist Faya Rose Toure. Fortier succeeded her father in Senate District 23, which extends over west and central Alabama counties.

Fortier has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Spelman College and a law degree from Birmingham School of Law.

Patricia Salter Jamieson

Patricia Salter Jamieson was born and raised in Atmore and lives in Birmingham. She has lived in Jefferson County for 43 years, according to her campaign website.

Jamieson attended Escambia County High School, Jefferson Davis State Community College, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Birmingham Theological Seminary. Jamieson is a licensed practical nurse and a licensed minister. In an interview on the Kennedy 4 Alabama radio show on May 5, she said she had worked in nursing for more than 40 years in Alabama.

Jamieson said she wants to raise Alabama’s rankings in education and would do that partly by supporting increased education funding with a lottery. Jamieson supports expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. According to the platform summary on her campaign website, she opposes abortion except in cases of rape or incest or to protect the health of the mother.

Arthur Kennedy

Arthur Kennedy entered service in the U.S. Army in 1994 and retired in 2020 with rank of sergeant first class. Kennedy, who lives in Midland City, is making his first run for public office.

He received a bachelor’s degree in education from Troy University last year.

Kennedy’s Army career including deployments to South Korea and Afghanistan. He worked as an instructor at Fort Benning.

Kennedy is employed with the Dothan City Schools as a custodian and a substitute teacher. Kennedy said he always envisioned running for governor after his retirement from the Army.

Kennedy said he would be an active governor who would not sit in Montgomery.

“I’m going to be out talking to the public. That’s the only way you can fix things,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy said he would work to improve infrastructure, including water systems. He said he would support Medicaid expansion, prison reforms, and education reforms. Kennedy said he’s a Christian who would work to build a foundation based on help through prayer and working in the community.

Chad “Chig” Martin

Chad “Chig” Martin describes himself as a conservative Democrat.

Martin said marijuana is a safer than alcohol and would like to see it legalized and taxed to boost Alabama’s economy. He said cannabis could be taxed at a high enough rate to increase funding for education, mental health care, and infrastructure. Martin said decriminalizing marijuana would help the court system and reduce crowding in jails and prisons.

Martin was raised in the Wiregrass. He played football at Enterprise High School and for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. After college, he started Thunder Industrial, a repair and maintenance parts company, one of his several business enterprises. He started Honeysuckle Hemp, which sells CBD products. He sells his own line of cowboy and fedora hats. Martin has recorded country songs and plays with a band, The Alabama Outlaws.

Doug “New Blue” Smith

Doug “New Blue” Smith is a Eufaula native who worked for Gov. Lurleen Wallace and Gov. Albert Brewer and on transition teams for six other governors following them. Smith helped start the Alabama Development Office and the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs.

Smith ran for agriculture commissioner in 2014 and ran for governor in 2018.

Smith has criticized Gov. Kay Ivey for spearheading a gas tax increase approved by the Legislature three years ago and called for a pause to the tax because of rising inflation. Smith has also said the record low unemployment rate does not show the full picture on the health of the state’s economy, partly because of the large number of people underemployed in low-paying jobs.

Smith has campaigned on his credentials as an economic development specialist. He has blamed Alabama’s Republican governors, starting with Bob Riley’s election in 2002, for failure to maintain effective economic development programs. He said Republican policies have reduced the state’s ability to draw federal funds that are needed to help support state services.

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

DISTRICT 2

The district in central and southeast Alabama is represented by Congressman Barry Moore of Enterprise, who is unopposed in the Republican primary.

Phyllis Harvey-Hall

Phyllis Harvey-Hall grew up in Enterprise in a family that placed a high value on education even though her parents did not have a high school diploma, according to her campaign website.

Harvey-Hall earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Alabama State University and taught in the Montgomery public school system.

Harvey-Hall, who is retired from teaching, owned and operated a tutoring business for two years, worked with the Family Sunshine Center, and has served as board member for two neighborhood associations.

Harvey-Hall would work to lower the cost of prescription drugs, expand Medicaid, and provide funding for rural health care. Harvey-Hall supports prison reforms including eliminating private prisons and ending mandatory minimum sentences. She would advocate for legalizing marijuana and expunging the records of marijuana offenders. Harvey-Hall supports abortion rights for women and voting reforms including automatic voter registration and no-excuse absentee voting.

Vimal Patel

According to his campaign website, Patel earned a bachelor’s degree in public administration from Auburn University in 2007. He returned to Troy where he has worked in his family’s hospitality business, which includes hotels in Montgomery, Dothan, and Troy.

Patel lives in Dothan, where he has been active in civic affairs and organizations, including the Dothan Tuesday Rotary Club, the Wiregrass Museum of Art and the Alzheimer’s Resource Center.

According to Patel’s campaign website, his experience in his family’s hotel business would help him be a champion for small businesses. Patel supports education reform and expansion of Medicaid. He supports term limits and said he would serve no more than two terms. Patel said he would advocate for the needs of Fort Rucker and Maxwell Air Force Base.

DISTRICT 4

The district in north Alabama is represented by Congressman Robert Aderholt of Haleyville, who is unopposed in the Republican primary.

Rhonda Gore

Rhonda Gore is a former teacher who was born on Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha.

According to her campaign website, her father was from Sand Mountain, and the family returned there after his retirement from the Air Force and began poultry farming.

Gore is a graduate of Ider High School and Northeast Alabama Community College, according to The Gadsden Times. Gore also holds a bachelor’s degree in social science from Jacksonville State University and a master’s degree in political science from the University of Alabama.

According to her campaign website, Gore supports increasing the minimum wage. She said her experience as a single mother has taught her the importance of women receiving equal pay for equal work. She said she is committed to bring higher-paying jobs to District 4 and to updating or replacing the district’s crumbling infrastructure.

Rick Neighbors

Rick Neighbors is the son of a sharecropper in North Carolina and an Army veteran who volunteered and served three tours in the Vietnam War.

Neighbors received a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 1979. He earned a master’s degree in business administration from the University of North Alabama in 2015. He worked in the apparel industry for more than 30 years.

Neighbors was the Democratic nominee against Republican incumbent Robert Aderholt in 2020 and lost by a wide margin, receiving 18% of the vote.

DISTRICT 5

The seat for the north Alabama district is open because Congressman Mo Brooks of Huntsville is running for the U.S. Senate instead of seeking another term. There are six Republican candidates for the seat.

Kathy Warner-Stanton

Kathy Warner-Stanton is an Alabama native who graduated from East Limestone High School and earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Alabama A&M University.

Warner-Stanton has worked as a computer specialist for the federal government and in the private sector, where she rose through the ranks to become a programming project manager, according to the biographical information on her campaign website. Warner-Stanton earned a master’s degree in management from Troy University while raising her children as a single mother.

Warner-Stanton supports improvements in education by expanding prekindergarten programs, trade schools, and career development programs. She would advocate for upgrades to infrastructure in rural areas to support economic development. And she would make it a priority to expand access to affordable health care so that families don’t have to choose between medical needs and other necessities.

Charlie Thompson

Charlie Thompson of Huntsville is a first-time candidate who has worked in management in the car rental business and in parking at the Huntsville International Airport, according to his campaign website.

Thompson earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2004.

Thompson said one of his goals is to unify the country. He said he supports term limits and campaign finance reforms to reduce corruption and the influence of special interests.

Thompson supports raising the minimum wage as part of an effort to strengthen families. His proposed voting reforms include allowing everyone to cast absentee ballots.

Thompson would like to see marijuana legalized and taxed. He supports abortion rights.

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