Feminist candidate Terri Sewell (D) will face a runoff election in July for a congressional seat representing Alabama’s 7th District. In the primary on Tuesday, Sewell led with 36.8 percent of the vote. She faces Jefferson County Commissioner Shelia Smoot, who received 28.5 percent of the primary vote, in the runoff. Both defeated State Representative Earl Hilliard, Jr., whose father used to hold the seat and was an early favorite in the race. Hilliard received 26.9 percent of the vote and a fourth candidate, attorney Martha Bozeman, received 7.8 percent of the vote. Sewell graduated with honors from Princeton, received her Masters degree from Oxford University, and her JD from Harvard University. She has served as a judicial law clerk in Birmingham, Alabama, to the Honorable Chief Judge U.W. Clemon, United States District Court (AL-ND), Alabama’s first black federal judge. As a lawyer, she also did pro bono work on behalf of at-risk young women and homeless families. She has done extensive work in the area of domestic violence and assisted in establishing a Domestic Violence Court in Birmingham. Sewell is also pro-choice. If either Sewell or Smoot is elected, they will be the first African American woman to represent Alabama in Congress. Many women’s rights organizations, including the Feminist Majority PAC, EMILY’s List, and the National Organization for Women PAC, have endorsed Sewell’s candidacy. The seat was vacated by incumbent Artur Davis (D), who failed to receive the Democratic party’s nomination for governor in the Tuesday primary. According to the Tuscaloosa News, the 7th Congressional District of Alabama is a traditionally Democratic district and the state’s only majority black district.
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