Terri Sewell


Terrycina Andrea "Terri" Sewell is an American lawyer and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, she has served as the U.S. Representative since 2011 for, which includes most of the Black Belt, as well as most of the predominantly Black portions of Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, and Montgomery. Alongside U.S. Senator Doug Jones, Sewell is one of two Democrats in Alabama’s congressional delegation.
A native of Selma, Sewell is a graduate of Princeton University, Harvard Law School, and Oxford University. Before entering politics, she had been a securities lawyer for Davis Polk & Wardwell and a public finance lawyer for Maynard, Cooper & Gale, where she was the first Black woman to make partner. She is the first African-American woman to have been elected to Congress from Alabama and, along with Republican Martha Roby, was one of the first women elected to Congress from Alabama in a regular election.
Sewell is one of a small number of people to hold the distinction of having worked with both Michelle Obama and Barack Obama before the Obama couple had met each other.

Early life and education

Terri Sewell was born in Huntsville, Alabama to Andrew A. Sewell, a former high school basketball coach, and Nancy Gardner Sewell, a retired high school librarian and former City Councilwoman in Selma. Her mother was the first black woman elected to the Selma City Council.
As a child, Sewell wanted to be a star on Broadway. Because her mother had hoped for her to become a lawyer, Sewell joined the debate team in high school. She was the first black valedictorian of Selma High School.
After graduating from high school, Sewell went to Princeton University. She was the first graduate from Selma High School to attend an Ivy League school. She was recruited to attend Princeton by Julian L. McPhillips, who read about Sewell in the local Selma newspaper. At Princeton, she befriended Michelle Obama, who served as what Sewell called her "big sister" on campus. Sewell completed a 158-page long senior thesis, titled "Black Women in Politics: Our Time Has Come". During her time at Princeton, she interned with Richard Shelby and Howell Heflin.
After graduating from Princeton in 1986, Sewell attended Oxford University. It was there where she befriended Susan Rice. Her master's thesis, on the election of the first black members of the British parliament, was later published as a book titled, Black Tribunes: Race and Representation in British Politics. She graduated from Oxford with a degree in political science in 1988. She attended Harvard University for her J.D. degree, which she completed in 1992. She overlapped with and was friends with Barack Obama, who would not only become a lifelong friend, but be a seminal figure in Sewell's decision to pursue a career in politics.

Legal career and political aspirations

After graduation, Sewell served as a judicial law clerk in Birmingham, Alabama to the Chief Judge U. W. Clemon, In New York, she worked at Davis Polk & Wardell, alongside Kirsten Gillibrand, starting in 1994.
Sewell returned to Alabama in 2004, due to her father's health problems. She worked for another law firm, Maynard, Cooper & Gale PC, where she was the first Black woman partner at the firm. She was a public finance lawyer.
In 2007 Sewell was at Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church, where she is a member, in Selma, when then senator Barack Obama spoke during the 2008 United States presidential election. Sewell credits Obama's speech, in which he asked, "“The questions that I have today is, what’s called of us in this Joshua generation? What do we do in order to fulfill that legacy, to fulfill the obligations and the debt that we owe to those who allowed us to be here today?”, as being the catalyst for her serving in politics. Weeks after the Obama speech, Kirsten Gillibrand called Sewell, recruiting Sewell to run for office.

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

;2010
After four-term Democratic incumbent Artur Davis gave up the seat to run for governor, Sewell entered the Democratic primary—the real contest in this majority Democratic, majority-black district. She finished first in the four-way primary with 36.8 percent of the vote. In the runoff, she defeated Jefferson County commissioner Sheila Smoot with 55 percent of the vote.
In the general election, Sewell defeated Republican opponent Don Chamberlain in a landslide, taking 72.4 percent of the vote to become the first black woman elected to Congress from Alabama. The 7th is so strongly Democratic that Sewell essentially clinched her seat by winning the primary.
;2012
Sewell was the only candidate to file for the Democratic nomination in 2012, and won the general election over Chamberlain as in 2010.
;2014
Sewell was challenged in the Democratic primary by Tamara Harris Johnson, a former Birmingham City Attorney. No Republican candidate filed. Sewell defeated Johnson with 83.9% of the primary vote, effectively clinching a third term.
;2016
Sewell was again unchallenged by a Republican in the 2016 general election. She easily won a fourth term against a write-in opponent.

Tenure and political positions

Since being elected, Sewell has voted with her party 91% of the time. She was a strong supporter of President Obama's policies. She has a lifetime rating of 8% from Heritage Action for America for voting for pro-conservative laws. Despite this, for the 114th United States Congress, Sewell was ranked as the 94th most bipartisan member of the U.S. House of Representatives in the Bipartisan Index created by The Lugar Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy that ranks members of the United States Congress by their degree of bipartisanship. Sewell has established herself as a liberal with a focus on job creation. Sewell is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.
In January 2020, Sewell endorsed Joe Biden for president.

Abortion

Terri Sewell is pro-choice. As of 2018, she has as 100% rating for her voting record on pro-choice legislation by NARAL. Sewell opposed the Human Life Protection Act, which went into effect in 2019. She described the bill on Twitter as "both blatantly unconstitutional and a brazen, extremist attack on women’s rights."

Civil rights

Sewell has a 79% rating from the ACLU for her pro-civil rights voting record. As of 2015, she is the only representative from Alabama to have a 100% rating from the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda for supporting Latino civil rights related legislation. She has a 94% rating from the NAACP for her voting history regarding legislature supporting African Americans.
Sewell has been endorsed by the Feminist Majority in past elections. In 2011, Sewell signed the Equal Rights Amendment. Two years later, in 2013, Sewell voted in support of reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act. In 2019, she voted in support of the Paycheck Fairness Act.
She has a score of "85" out of 100 for her voting on pro-LGBTQ laws from the Human Rights Campaign. She co-sponsored the Student Non-Discrimination Act in 2013 which, if enacted, would have protected LGBT students from anti-gay bullying and discrimination in public schools.
Sewell is a staunch advocate for voting rights. In 2019, she sponsored the Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would update the Voting Rights Act of 1965, by providing increased oversight over voting changes, updating the pre-clearance formula to oversee contemporary discrimination patterns, and expanding the power of the Attorney General to send federal observers to jurisdictions in areas at risk for discrimination during voting. In 2019, she co-sponsored the For the People Act of 2019.

Corporations and labor

Sewell has a 92% lifetime rating for her pro-union voting history from the AFL-CIO and a 97% lifetime rating from the AFSCME. She has a lifetime score of 61% from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for her pro-business votes. Sewell is a proponent of a $15 minimum wage.

Drugs

Sewell’s stance has been generally anti-drug. Although she supports scientific research to evaluate the medical use of marijuana, she does not support legalization of cannabis in Alabama. Sewell has a "D" rating from NORML, and a score of 3 out of 6 from National Cannabis Industry Association, regarding her voting record for cannabis.

Education

Sewell is a major supporter of historically black colleges and universities. In 2019, she sponsored a bill, which passed, funding HBCUs $70 million for capital improvements and to support their educational work.

Energy and oil

Sewell opposes offshore drilling and greenhouse gas regulations.

Environment

In 2018, the Humane Society of the United States gave Sewell a rating of 45% for her pro-animal welfare voting history. She has a 79% rating from the League of Conservation Voters for her pro-environment voting record.

Families and children

Sewell has worked with Ivanka Trump to develop policies related to paid parental leave.

Foreign policy

Sewell supported Obama's decisions regarding Afghanistan, citing "trust" for his policies. She was part of a bipartisan delegation to accompany Nancy Pelosi on a 2-day trip to Afghanistan in May 2012. While there, they spent time "with American service-members and meeting local officials to discuss security and women's issues."

Free trade

Sewell supports tariffs on countries involved in currency manipulation. She signed the Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act 2010.

Government reform

Sewell co-sponsored the STOCK Act in 2011 and the DISCLOSE Act in 2012. That same year, she also co-sponsored the SIMPLE Voting Act, to require a minimum of 15 days of nationwide early voting.

Gun law

In 2019, Sewell voted in support for the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019, requiring background checks on anyone seeking to buy a firearm.

Health care

Sewell is the only representative from Alabama to have a 100% rating from Planned Parenthood for voting history of support for women's health.
Sewell voted in favor for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. She supports Medicaid expansion and offering incentives for states to do so. She is currently sponsoring bills to lower prescription drug costs, expand funding for rural hospitals, and to support more health studies on African American health disparities.

Homeland security

Sewell supported extending the PATRIOT Act's wiretapping. She voted against funding to support Trump's wall.

Kay Ivey

When Alabama governor Kay Ivey shared that she had performed in a college skit in blackface, Sewell responded calling Ivey's actions "reprehensible" and "deeply offensive,” adding that "racism – in any of its forms – is never acceptable, not in the 1960s and not now."

Social security

As of 2018, Sewell has a 96% lifetime score from the Alliance of Retired Americans for her pro-retirement voting record.

Tax reform

Sewell supported President Obama's plan to extend tax cuts for low- and middle-income Americans, but declined to discuss her stance on taxation for high-income Americans. In response to Obama's Framework for Business Tax Reform, Sewell said: "I applaud the President for outlining a bold framework for reforming the U.S. business tax system."
Sewell wants to see the Military Widow’s Tax eliminated.

Donald J. Trump

On December 18, 2019, Sewell voted for both articles of impeachment against President Donald J. Trump and was the lone Representative from Alabama in the House to do so.

War and peace

Sewell opposed removing armed forces from Afghanistan in 2011.

Welfare and poverty

Sewell has voted in opposition to work requirements for welfare recipients.

Committee assignments

Representative Sewell currently serves on the following House committees:

Personal life

Sewell married in 1998 to Theodore Dixie of Huntsville, Alabama. They are divorced.
Sewell is a lifetime member of Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma, Alabama.