In May, APR spoke with Dakarai Larriett, a former executive, entrepreneur and advocate for criminal justice reform who at the time had just launched his 2026 campaign for Tommy Tuberville’s U.S. Senate seat. Now, a few months into Larriett’s first run for public office, APR took the opportunity to speak with the Senate-hopeful again to learn how his campaign has gone thus far and what his plans are for the months ahead.
While he knows that winning as a first-time Democratic candidate is no easy task in a statewide election in Alabama, Larriett explained that he has been hard at work building a strong foundation for his campaign through relentless networking and outreach, using his status as a self-employed business owner to his advantage.
“It has taken a lot of tenacity and creativity to gain the momentum that we have been able to gain,” Larriett told APR. “I actually own a business, I own a pet care business, so that is giving me flexibility that I would not have had, for example, when I was corporately employed last year. So, I’ve been a full-time candidate since February when I started the exploratory committee.”
“We formally announced just in April, and it was very slow at the beginning, it really was. The first $25,000 [in fundraising] came from friends and family who believed in me and were excited that I was running and then from there… I built a team. I inherited pretty much all of [former Democratic U.S. Senator] Doug Jones’s people — my fundraiser, my campaign manager, my web and creative people, they all come from Doug’s old team, and it was really a crash course on what to do next,” he explained. “My fundraiser basically gave me a list of 6,000 people, and I started calling every single person. I’m about halfway through the list at this point.”
Larriett said that he is on the phone anywhere from three to six hours each and every day asking for donations and building connections for his campaign, taking any opportunity he can to connect with as many different communities as possible.
“I would say one out of 10 people answer their phone today… and then one out of those 10 people give money. It’s a very small chance of getting money, so I really take it as networking and that’s really what’s been happening,” Larriett said. “Some people say, ‘hey, I’m not ready to give money now, but I have a Quaker meeting next week and I’d like you to come out.'”
Larriett did, in fact, go to that Quaker meeting and, according to his campaign, participated in an hour-long silent meditation before discussing gun rights issues with the 12 individuals in attendance. He explained that those moments, while small in scale, are integral to his campaign’s focus on building a diverse coalition that represents a variety of walks of life from all over Alabama.
“It’s been so amazing that I’ve been able to meet so many different demographics,” he told APR. “Since that time, for example, Sen. Tuberville made some very incendiary remarks about Muslims. We said, ‘you know what, why don’t we reach out to the Muslim group that he is refusing to meet with?’ and they’re excited to meet with us, and we’re scheduling that. So we’re going very wide and talking to everyone.”
Larriett says that now he is also beginning to gain more traction within the Democratic party itself, connecting with party leaders at both the state and national levels.
“Once we kind of started our social media and we started getting traction there, Democratic groups started reaching out to us, so they’ve been the most proactive in terms of reaching out,” Larriett explained. “I’ve spoken to the DeKalb County Democrats, I’ve been to Mobile two times in the last two weeks… and this week, with everything going on with the ‘big beautiful bill,’ I took the opportunity to go to Washington. I had no real meetings or anything scheduled, but I said, ‘hey, let’s just go and see what’s going on.'”
In D.C., Larriett reconnected with U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., and also made connections with U.S. Reps. Maxine Waters, D-CA; Hank Johnson, D-GA; and Lucy McBath, D-GA, during a demonstration against President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Locally, Larriett has joined “a number of Democratic clubs” which have allowed him to meet several state representatives in Alabama and expand his in-state network.
Larriett also told APR about his recent participation in a brake light clinic — a mutual aid event where organizers change people’s broken brake lights for free in order to to reduce police interactions — hosted by state Rep. Barbara Drummond and the Democratic Socialists of America in Mobile. Larriett himself was unlawfully arrested by Michigan State Police following a traffic stop in 2024, an event which he has previously described as a key motivation behind his leap into public service.
“Brake lights are the number one reason that minorities have unnecessary interactions with the police, so that really is right on message for me given my arrest story,” he said.
Since working with DSA at the brake light clinic, Larriett says that he has been able to further involve the progressive organization in his campaign despite having acknowledged policy differences. In his eyes, it is just another step toward growing a broad coalition of support.
“When I was in Mobile the last time, two weeks ago, I reached out to some social media people that I thought were making some engaging videos and it turns out they’re DSA,” he explained. “We spent the weekend together, and we realized there were areas that we can hold hands on and there are areas where, ‘hey, I’m a moderate and that’s just not going to fly in Alabama,’ and that was a really encouraging moment.”
Larriett also told APR that the Mobile Bay chapter of DSA has recommended his campaign for a national endorsement from the organization.
“Like I said before, we’re not going to agree on everything, but if they find that our campaign most closely aligns with their values, that would be a huge opportunity, and then we get an opportunity to use that network for door-knocking and phone-banking,” Larriett said.
Larriett also mentioned Zohran Mamdani, the current Democratic nominee in the New York City mayoral race, who upset former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary while running as a self-described Democratic Socialist. Larriett told APR that while he and Mamdani have clear differences in policy, he sees the New Yorker’s hugely successful campaign strategy as a roadmap for winning as an underdog candidate.
“[Mamdani’s] policy, we know, is just very different from what we want here in Alabama, I want to be clear about that. What’s interesting is he was able to run successfully as a 33-year-old with what many people describe as a ‘light résumé,’ but I’d say it’s a diverse résumé that resonated with the voters,” Larriett said. “I have 20 years in corporate America, nonprofit work volunteerism, serving my community. When I speak to voters and donors, no one says, ‘yeah, I wish you had 20 years of experience in the state house.’ No, what they’re really excited about is the organizing, the creativity, how we’re leveraging social media, and my tenacity. So that’s really what I’m excited about when I see [Mamdani’s] campaign — that he was able to go from, I think, 4 percent of the vote to winning a primary as a Democrat in New York City, which in most cases means you win the general.”
Larriett also praised Mamdani’s robust network of over 50,000 volunteers, something he hopes to emulate, at least in part, with his own campaign next year.
“What we’re building now is that excitement and the folks who will be the boots on the ground next year. Quarter one is when we’ll start the phone-banking and getting out and door-knocking. Everywhere I go, I’m just seeing people pumped, they’re ready to volunteer and I’m like, ‘we’re not ready yet, we’re still raising money,’ [but] we’re building that network,” he explained.
Larriett is seeing positive signs for his campaign internally as well.
“The name recognition has grown dramatically since April, and it’s gotten to the point now when I call people, they answer like, ‘Hello, Dakarai!’ They know who I am, and they’re really just trying to put a face to a name at this point. So that’s super encouraging,” he said. “Remember, we’re a year out from the primary and a year and a half out from the general, so it is super early, and when I think about Mamdani’s win, that’s the model. It’s tenacity and it’s out-working the competition and thinking about new ways to reach people.”
“Besides the name recognition, we actually kicked off a poll and we’re making good progress on the poll. Obviously, we want to be scientific, so we need a few more responses… but what we’re seeing so far is very encouraging: that I’m the clear front-runner in this primary by double digits. So that is really encouraging, [especially] so early in the race as someone who’s never run before,” Larriett added.
Now, Larriett wants to use that steadily increasing name recognition and popularity to reemphasize his policy platform of economic opportunity, education and healthcare — a platform which he believes can resonate beyond party affiliation.
“‘Democrat’ is not a good word here and in many places right now, but what we’re really focusing in on is policy, and what we find is people like the policy and they like the kitchen table issues: economic opportunity, education and healthcare. And we’re really good about staying on script with that,” he said.
For now, Larriett’s immediate focus is on winning next May’s Democratic primary. Kyle Sweetser, a business owner who spoke at the 2024 Democratic National Convention as a “Republican against Trump,” and Mark Wheeler, a chemist from Anniston, are the other two Democratic candidates currently in the race.
“We’ve got to get [the primary]. And, the way our primary is set up, if you can win that with a plurality [then] you get a really nice runway to the general. So we really have to focus on that primary, but also make sure the messaging doesn’t prevent us from winning the general,” Larriett said.
