Richard Rouco has been involved in politics as a lawyer, helping represent plaintiffs who challenged the new Congressional district lines in Alabama, but he has never run for public office himself — until this year.
Rouco, a resident of the Russet Woods community in Hoover, said he was approached in January by leaders in the Democratic Party about running for Alabama House District 15 — a seat being vacated by Republican Allen Farley. He decided he didn’t want to sit on the sidelines anymore and on Tuesday is battling Republican Leigh Hulsey of Helena for Farley’s old seat.
Rouco said the most important issue to him is Alabama’s refusal to expand Medicaid and accept incentives offered by the federal government under the Affordable Care Act.
A study by the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama determined that the state could realize $400 million in savings each year for the next six years by expanding Medicaid.
That’s a significant amount of money that could be used to strengthen public safety, public schools and small businesses, Rouco said.
But too many people are wedded to certain principles and unwilling to set aside pre-conceived beliefs and look at this as a policy decision and ask if expanding Medicaid would help families in Alabama and strengthen communities, he said.
“It just seems to be obstinance now,” Rouco said.
Rouco also said he favors eliminating the grocery tax in Alabama, noting that Alabama is one of just a few states in the country that continues to tax groceries.
He also would like to look at temporarily suspending the new gasoline taxes that were passed in 2019 until gas prices stabilize because gas prices continue to go up, he said.
Rouco said some lawmakers have preconceived ideas about public education without listening to teachers and what’s actually happening in classrooms. He wants to do more to educate children for jobs in the “knowledge sector” of the economy, such as technology jobs, he said. He favors creating more magnet schools, such as a computer science and engineering academy that could serve as a counterpart to the Alabama School of Fine Arts, he said.
Rouco said that, as a lawyer, he has been representing working families in Alabama for 28 years, and he wants to do more as a legislator to help working families. For example, he would like to expand leave policies to provide paid leave for pregnancies and paid leave for people who have loved ones with illnesses who need assistance.
He also wants to make it easier for people to vote in Alabama, not harder, he said.
Rouco, 58, was born in Miami, grew up in Florida and went to Florida State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and English in 1987. He attended graduate school at the University of California at Irvine but then moved to Alabama, where he got a law degree from the University of Alabama in 1994.
He has been a lawyer for 28 years, first with Cooper Mitch, then with Whatley, Drake and now with Quinn, Connor, Weaver, Davies and Rouco. He practices mostly employment law but also handles antitrust, voting rights and civil rights cases.
He was on the local litigation team for the voting rights case that now is being considered by the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the recent redrawing of Congressional districts in Alabama, which plaintiffs claim dilutes the political power of black people.
Rouco said partisanship should be taken out of political redistricting and that neutral mapmakers, not politicians, should be the ones drawing Congressional and legislative districts.
Rouco, who was elected to the Jefferson County Democratic Executive Committee this year, formerly served about five years on the board of Greater Birmingham Ministries, is active with the Birmingham Bar Association and is a member of American Bar Association, Union Lawyers Association and YMCA of Hoover.
He has been married for 35 years and has two children at the University of Alabama and Vanderbilt University.
For more information about Rouco, go to roucoforhd15.com or visit Richard Rouco for House District 15 on Facebook.
For more information about Hulsey, see this story or go to hulseyforhouse.com or Leigh Hulsey for State House District 15 on Facebook.
