Former U.S. Congressman Artur Davis has officially announced a run for Montgomery mayor.
He announced his decision in a video posted on Twitter Monday.
Davis has tried for the position before. He finished second in a five-candidate field in the 2015 mayoral race.
He said he will emphasize his own roots in Montgomery public education and his commitment to reviving the local school system, which includes 12 failing schools and has been the subject of an emergency state intervention.
“I know what the Montgomery school system used to be capable of achieving,” Davis said. “I used an education at traditional schools like Jeff Davis High and Dannelly as a springboard to win awards at Harvard and become a congressman by age 35. As Mayor, I will have one major mission: to build a community-wide coalition of our new school board, teachers, parents and businesses that will return Montgomery public schools to being a foundation to succeed anywhere in America.”
Davis addressed the issue in an op-ed he authored in December 2018.
“The next mayor must join forces with the new school board to extricate the schools from the state takeover, a mismanaged event that creates the kind of uncertain chain of command that makes it impossible to attract a national caliber superintendent,” Davis wrote.
Davis was born and raised in Montgomery.
“I do agree that this city is on the edge of making history,” Artur wrote in 2018. “But the test for candidates is not how well we represent one community or satisfy that community’s insiders and gatekeepers. It is whether any of us has what it takes to make Montgomery a trendsetter in repairing failing schools and blighted neighborhoods and in forging a more prosperous, more equitable future.”
He spent 35 years of his life in the city, where he started his career as a federal prosecutor in Alabama’s Middle District.
He said his experience fighting crime will guide his approach to making Montgomery safer.
“I learned as a prosecutor that there are two kinds of criminal offenders,” Davis said. “First, the ones devoted to wrecking their own communities and who have no respect for their own neighbors. To take them on, we need to commit to a larger police force and an aggressive plan to confront gang violence and the rise in gun and property crimes. But there are also people in the criminal justice system whose lives can be turned around. I want Montgomery to become known as a model for finding work and dignity for ex-offenders who want rehabilitation.”
Davis served four terms as a congressman in Alabama’s 7th Congressional District.
Since 2015, he has also served as the executive director of the state’s civil legal aid program and as a policy consultant on issues including barriers to occupational licensing and criminal justice reform.
His wife is Tara Johnson Davis, who is a nonprofit executive running two homeless shelters in Montgomery.
The election will be held Aug. 27, 2019.
Montgomery County Commission President Eltron Dean and 25-year-old political newcomer Marcus McNeal have all announced plans to run. Montgomery County Probate Judge Steven read is also reportedly considering the option.
