The 2020 election cycle in Georgia, which saw the state go for Joe Biden in the presidential election and flip two U.S. Senate seats from red to blue, has some looking across the border to the west, wondering if the same thing is possible in Alabama.
With U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Tuscaloosa) announcing he will not seek a seventh term in the U.S. Senate, there has been full-on speculation as to who might run for the seat on the Republican side. However, there seems to have been little discussion about who might lead the Democrats on the ballot in the 2022 general election.
During an appearance Saturday on MSNBC’s “The Cross Connection,” U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Birmingham) was asked about the possibility that she might seek the Democrat nod for U.S. Senate in 2022. Sewell was noncommittal on a run but acknowledged it was something she would “look very closely at.”
“I think the reality is exactly right — black women helped deliver Biden to the White House,” she said. “We helped deliver Senator Doug Jones to the Senate, and I do believe we deserve a seat at the table. Obviously, we’ll look very closely at it. I have the opportunity to represent my home district — Selma, Alabama, Montgomery, Birmingham — the Civil Rights District. It is the honor of a lifetime for me. I’ve worked hard over the last 10 years, and here’s what I know for sure — black women need a seat at the table. We’ve earned that right, and we are obviously missing that seat in the Senate. And it is going to be critically important that we have a seat at the table and we help set the agenda.”
“I look forward to exploring my options when it comes to that, but I want you to know that I am committed to making sure we represent Alabama — all of Alabamians in the United States House of Representatives, and I look forward to doing that.”
Host Tiffany Cross pressed Sewell on the possibility, only to be told by Sewell that she was “singularly focused” on her district but planned to explore options while acknowledging the politics in neighboring Georgia were something to consider.
“I disagree with the premise that somehow Alabama is not — we cannot turn Alabama blue like we did Georgia,” she said. “The reality is we can expand the electorate. The reality is African-American communities, both men and women, really did deliver that win for Doug Jones. And I know it is a steep climb, but I also know we are a resilient people — and African-American women, if anyone can do it, we can. And so, I will be looking at the opportunities in Alabama. But at the same time, I am singularly focused on delivering for the people I represent now in Alabama’s seventh congressional district. It is so important that we get that COVID relief, that we crush the virus, that we get an increase in minimum wage, that we get food security and deal with the nutrition assistance that is so needed.”
“But look, politics is politics,” Sewell added. “But I know the South is rising again, and we cannot, cannot leave us behind.”
@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Alabama, the editor of Breitbart TV, a columnist for Mobile’s Lagniappe Weekly, and host of Mobile’s “The Jeff Poor Show” from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. on FM Talk 106.5.
