Mallory Hagan, Democratic nominee for Alabama’s 3rd congressional district, speaks at a rally at Moody Civic Center on July 12. Photo by Danny Moore

When someone tells Carl Carter he can’t get people to vote Democrat in St.Clair County, it fires him up. 

He’s running for Senate District 11, which represents Moody and Pell City. Carter and Mallory Hagan, who is running for Alabama’s 3rd Congressional District, held a rally at Moody Civic Center July 12, where they spoke about the challenges facing the state. 

There are far more Republican voters than Democrats in St.Clair. According to the summary report from voting.stcairco.com, the Republicans cast 14,166 ballots during the 2018 primary election compared to the Democrats who had just 1,830. But despite the difference in numbers, and the fact that the last Democrat who ran for District 11 lost by 55 percentage points, Carter is not backing down. He even called the Democrats of St. Clair County “hardcore supporters.” 

Carter believes he can win against incumbent Jim McClendon, who he says takes money from Political Action Committees. According to data on the Secretary of State website, cpa.alabamavotes.gov/PublicSite/SearchPages/ContributionSearch, McClendon received $60,000 from PACs the last three months but only received $30 from individual donors. 

“He has one single solitary donation of $30 and the rest is all PACs,” Carter said. 

What Carter seeks to do once in office is to lower the grocery tax. “Alabama is number one. We got the highest grocery tax in the country. We have an average of 9.1 percent sales tax,” Carter said. “Even people dependent on Social Security have to pay  9.1 percent tax. The fact that we have a higher sales tax than California is mind-boggling. Or the fact that some states like Alaska, Delaware and Montana don’t have sales tax.”

Carter said the tax was killing our retailers and makes it tougher for people in lower income brackets.

Carter and Walt Maddox, the mayor of Tuscaloosa, spent a day together talking about giving people the chance to actually vote for the lottery. 

“That will provide the funds to finally give our teachers a decent raise,” Carter said. 

He fears teachers will leave their jobs because of inadequate pay. It took a decade just to get a two percent raise for teachers in the state. Furthermore, he thinks the students in St.Clair County deserve just as good of schools like Mountain Brook. 

Mallory Hagan spoke about her upbringing and how her journey has been since her transition into politics.

She went from being Miss America in 2013 to being a candidate for Alabama’s 3rd congressional district, which includes Springville, Ashville, Ragland and Odenville. She won against her opponent, Adia McClellan Winfrey in the primaries. Now she will face off with Republican nominee  Mike D. Rogers, who has been undefeated since 2002 when he first took office. Hagan canvassed up and down the 3rd district, going door to door listening to the concerns of many. 

Hagan was raised in the 3rd District of Alabama. She said she spent time with her great grandmother in Alexander City picking muscadine and baking cake. She also grew up on government assistance. 

“I’m grateful that the government was there to help us through that time frame,” said Hagan. “The government was there to make sure my parents had the opportunity to get an education and provide a better life for me.” 

Her mother and father both pursued an education. Her mother became a small business owner and a cosmetologist, while her father studied four years at Auburn.

Hagan became independent quickly after realizing her parents couldn’t do everything for her. She got a job by age 14 working at a local restaurant in Opelika. When she entered high school, she worked and studied in hopes to get into Auburn, but her parents didn’t have money for her tuition. 

However, she went to Auburn anyway, paying her way through freshmen year by working three jobs. Initially, she pursued medical science. But nothing paid off she felt, so she left for New York City on a whim with the support of her parents.

When she arrived in the Big Apple, she had $975 dollars to her name. On her first day, she was able to land two jobs and by the following week, she had a place to stay. She got her education at the Fashion Institute of Technology. 

“The way that I got money to pay for school was by entering the Miss New York competition,” Hagan explained.

After winning Miss New York, the Alabama native went on to win Miss America in 2013.  

“When I won Miss America it was on the platform of stopping child abuse. So I worked with national organizations like Prevent Child Abuse America,” said Hagan.

When she left NYC, she became a reporter in Columbus, Georgia. She said, “Nothing will make you want to get involved in politics like having to decide in every meeting which fatal shooting in your community is the one that makes the news.”  

Hagan says she loves everybody equally no matter their sex, race, ethnicity or religion. The most inspiring thing she learned from canvasing in the district was that people valued equality just as high as education and healthcare. 

Carter and Hagan will be on the Democratic ticket in the general election on Nov. 6.