Sewell re-elected to 7th Congressional District

Published 11:16 pm Tuesday, June 3, 2014

With no Republican competition, U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, cruised to re-election over former Birmingham city attorney Tamara Harris Johnson Tuesday in the Alabama Democratic primary.

Sewell carried Dallas County by a margin of more than triple Johnson’s vote count. Sewell’s victory means a third term representing Alabama’s 7th Congressional District.

Shortly after hearing the news, Sewell said she was ready to get back to work for residents of the seventh district.

Email newsletter signup

“It’s an honor and a privilege to represent the seventh congressional district and we ran a race that showed how important this job is,” Sewell said. “I know that this district has challenges, but I in those challenges I see opportunity. My job is to continue to advocate for people of the seventh, to provide better job opportunities, economic opportunities and that’s what we have been doing.”

Sewell added that she felt the win was an endorsement that she is on the right track in office.

Sewell is a Selma native and graduated from Selma High School as the first black valedictorian. After high school, she attended Princeton University and the University of Oxford before earning a law degree from Harvard.

Her law career includes stints at a Wall Street law firm and as a public finance lawyer in Birmingham.

Sewell was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010. She is the lone black and only Democratic member of Alabama’s congressional delegation. The 7th District includes inner-city of Birmingham and Montgomery and the Black Belt.