TV: What does your day-to-day look like from now until September 26? And if you don’t win, do you plan to stay politically active, whatever that looks like?
SS: The next two weeks, it is absolutely boots on the ground: knocking on doors, making phone calls, getting people out to vote. Voter turnout is very low in a special election. This will be the only thing on the ballot, so I am spending all of my waking hours thinking about that and trying to reach voters. I was literally talking to three people right up until this interview started, trying to secure some votes.
I don’t know how it’s gonna go on the 26th, I’ll be completely transparent. There’s so much up in the air with all this, and I think all the candidates feel that. I built really good relationships with many of the other candidates in this election. We got dinner after our last forum on Tuesday, and that was kind of the general consensus: We have no idea what’s really going to happen.
Often in Alabama politics, we get surprised. People expect, Oh, it’s always going to be this. It’s always going to be that. It may be true for the presidential elections, but we saw with Doug Jones versus Roy Moore, people were shocked. It was so important that we showed up and said, “No, we’ve had enough of this.” So I’m thinking that no matter what happens on September 26, we have changed the conversation.
Where I see my part in all this moving forward is never say never to running again or engaging further. I know that I have made commitments to the community, that I will be showing up at neighborhood meetings, I will be in conversations with members of the community who did not know me before this election started. I will honor that regardless of what happens in this turnout.
But again, I’m not a career politician. My goals are much bigger, beyond winning an election. Whatever I do after this, the goal is to change the conversation and to connect people and to unify — and show not only the state, but the country who Alabama really is. That can be done in a large number of ways, and I’m excited to see where that conversation goes from here.
TV: Do you sense that your campaign is already having an impact?
SS: I’ve seen a number of comments on social media posts, on TikTok or Instagram, saying, “Wow, for once I’m proud to be from Alabama,” or “I just moved away from Alabama as a trans woman, but I’m so grateful to see you doing this.” I think about who I was when I was a middle schooler and a high schooler, thinking about that kid who never felt like they belonged. I hope that this campaign tells those kids that they belong, and that there’s a future here, and they don’t have to leave to be who they are.
