She Won an Alabama Swing District. Her Supporters Want More Women to Do the Same.
Originally published by Grace Panetta for The 19th
Democrat Marilyn Lands gained national attention in March when she flipped an Alabama state House seat with a campaign focused on abortion and reproductive rights. And she doesn’t want to be the last.
Lands’ supporters are launching a new PAC, Respect Alabama, to recruit, train and elect more women to run for office in Alabama, where women, especially Black women, are underrepresented in government. The PAC plans to support Democrats but is open to backing candidates running for local races, like school board, that are nonpartisan in Alabama. Democrats in the state have been chronically under-resourced, and Democratic women face an especially difficult path to running for office.
In her campaign, Lands ran explicitly on overturning the state’s near-total abortion ban, including telling her own story. Weeks before the election, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are children, halting fertility treatment for many in the state. Lands said her win sent a “clear message” that voters want to shift the state’s current direction.