Wednesday, the Audri Scott Williams campaign for U.S. Congress announced that Alabama’s New South Alliance has endorsed her for the Democratic primary race in Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District.
Audri Scott Williams is running on a platform focused on universal healthcare, living wages, defending public education and criminal justice reform.
Williams’ campaign said that the New South Alliance is one of Alabama’s strongest and largest Democratic organizations and that the endorsement legitimizes her strategy of communicating political vision over political convenience while choosing to speak directly to the people’s needs.
“I see the New South’s endorsement as not just an honor, but as a reflection of the hunger for political leadership that’s responsive to the concerns they have now,” says Williams. “The desire we’ve seen for change isn’t just about a change in leadership, it’s about a change in substance and presentation, where the concerns of Alabama’s citizens can be directly addressed and solved instead of sacrificed at the altar of political defensiveness. We’re in a new era, and as I reflect on the history of my candidacy, and the urgency that leaders of today must respond to, I see a newly engaged citizenry that’s embracing campaigns that speak to and for them. It’s empowering because we’re talking to people that feel they should be empowered.”
Williams is one of the unprecedented 35 African American women running for office in Alabama. If she wins the 2nd Congressional District’s race, she will be the first black woman to have ever won the seat, and the first black person to have won it since James Rapier in 1873.
“This moment is bigger than any one race,” Williams said. “We as a state and a country need to sit with what it means for not just Alabama, but this nation, that in a state with our history of lynching and slavery, that we can possibly have three African American women as Alabama’s representatives on a Congressional level. It just reminds us that just as the cradle of the Confederacy can birth the civil rights movement, so too can the era of Trump birth unexpected possibility for this state.”
Audri Scott Williams joins Terri Sewell, and Dr. Adia Winfrey as one of three black women running for Congress in Alabama.
The Alabama New South Coalition was created in a two-day convention in Birmingham in January 1986. Then Birmingham Mayor Richard Arrington was the first President of the group.
According to their website, the purpose of the Alabama New South Coalition is to promote the general welfare of all people through independent focused organizations dedicated to progressive ideals of freedom, justice and democracy. Our specific objectives are to effect solutions to social, economic and community problems by constructively promoting: Community Focused Organization, Voter Registration and Education, Economic Development, Cultural Awareness, Leadership Development, Youth Development, Progressive Legislation, and to coalesce and assist organizations with similar objectives.
The Alabama New South Alliance was created because, “In accordance to Alabama’s Fair Campaign Practices Act (FCPA) regulating political action organizations, Alabama New South Coalition (ANSC) cannot endorse candidates. As a result, ANSC changed its Articles of Incorporation to eliminate endorsements and other forms of partisan political activity. Thus, the creation of Alabama New South Alliance, anyone who is a member of ANSC is a qualified member of ANSA.”
Audri Scott Williams faces Tabitha Isner in the Democratic Primary on June 5.
The Second Congressional District is currently represented by Congresswoman Martha Roby. Roby is being challenged by State Rep. Barry Moore, R-Enterprise, retired Army Sergeant Major Tommy Amason, former Administrator of the Alabama Court System Rich Hobson, and former Congressman Bobby Bright.
The Democratic Party is hoping that the unpopularity of President Donald Trump will result in a “blue wave” that will enable Democrats to take seats like the Second Congressional District on November 6 and restore Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House. Democrats have not controlled the House of Representatives since 2011.
