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For the first time in four decades, House District 52 has a new Democratic representative.
Kelvin Datcher, the deputy director of community development for the City of Birmingham, beat pastor Frank Woodson in a primary runoff on Tuesday, taking in roughly 55 percent of the vote.
With the Republican challenger, Carlos Crum, dropping out of the race, according to the Alabama Secretary of State, Datcher will be HD52’s representative. He will replace Rep. John Rogers, who served the district for more than 40 years but was forced to resign in March as part of a deal after pleading guilty to federal corruption charges.
Datcher told supporters at a victory party on Tuesday evening that he was “humbled by the overwhelming support and trust.”
Turnout for the runoff, which essentially served as a general election, was abysmal. Just over 1,500 voters cast ballots in the district of around 33,000 – a turnout of less than 5 percent.
Datcher previously was the top vote-getter in a six-candidate primary field. He won 38 percent of the vote in that race.
This will be Datcher’s first time in public office. He previously served as the chief of staff for Jefferson County Commissioner Sheila Tyson when she served as a Birmingham city councilwoman and also a policy analyst for the Jefferson County Department of Health.
Datcher focused his campaign on education and health care, but he said his true focus once elected is to build bridges with other lawmakers, including Republicans, to get meaningful legislation passed.
“I want to find common ground on issues that are important to this state,” Datcher said. “We might not ever agree completely on issues, but there are hopefully portions of those important issues where we can find some commonality.”
