In a race already mired in chatter about residency—Who lives in newly drawn 2nd congressional district? Who doesn’t? Does it matter?—Alabama State Minority Leader Rep Anthony Daniel, D-Huntsville, is emphatic: “I am not the minority leader for Huntsville.”

“I live in Huntsville but define what a minority leader is,” he says. “It is the state minority leader. It means you deliver for the entire state and help your members get things for their district that they wouldn’t ordinarily be able to get. Even if [a candidate] represents an area I can point to what I’ve done for that area. That’s the way it is as a minority leader.”

On Thursday, Daniels became the latest Democrat to join in a swelling field seeking to earn the seat created by a federal court to provide Black voters in the state with an increased opportunity to elect a representative of their choice. He qualified after attending a ceremonial bill signing at the Hyundai plant in Montgomery for bipartisan legislation he sponsored during the last session that exempts overtime pay from state income taxes.

“You tell me what other state a minority leader has been able to move something like that for working people,’ he says. “I want the focus to be on deliverables and defining what a minority leader does because, in all fairness, nobody else has that title.”

Daniels is the eighth Dem to qualify–more are expected to do so before the Friday 5 p.m. deadline.

The primary is March 5, 2024.

The U.S. Constitution does not require congressional candidates to live within the district they’re seeking to represent, only within the state. Still, territorialism lingers in this race and will likely remain entrenched as the days stretch toward the March primary.

Daniels boasts several pieces of legislation he’s either sponsored or stewarded he says has benefitted Alabama residents statewide, including in the second district—such as the overtime bill, creating the Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering, and standing for South Alabama’s Mobile and Baldwin counties on 2016 over $1 billion in BP oil spill settlement money. “It was me who stood on the floor against North Alabama to make sure the BP money stayed (in South Alabama),” he said during a forum in Mobil last Friday.

He also touts clandestine bipartisan efforts in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on May 25, 2020, which bore bipartisan fruit during the 2021 legislative session. The effort began with a “raw” gathering between the Black Democrats and white Republicans in a Montgomery Baptist church less than three weeks after Floyd’s death.

“Not one of these people running it was in that room,” Daniels says. “Not one of them.”

And, certainly, Daniels embraces his own roots—seeded and nurtured in Midway in Bullock County, 278 miles southeast of Huntsville. Raised by a grandmother who couldn’t drive and a disabled grandfather, he recalled the rolling store that came by their home. “We were able to barter [for goods] with eggs because we had we had chickens,” he said. “You grow up in poverty and not even know you’re poor. Some of the people in those communities are living the same way today.

“When I read articles that talk about Bullock County having the second highest rate of poverty in the United States, you think I like seeing stories like that? So, at the end of the day, it’s about being able to serve not just Bullock County, Montgomery County, Mobile County, Monroe, Washington, Butler, Crenshaw, Pike, Barbour, Macon, Russell, and Clark.

“I’m excited because a lot of the rural communities in this district have been ignored. I’ve been very effective here in Madison County. I love Madison. I’ve delivered a lot for Madison County. But I want to do more for the place that gave me my start.”

The only Republican to qualify to run in District 2 is Montgomery attorney Caroleene Dobson. Barry Moore of Enterprise, who now represents the 2nd district in congress, is running against U.S. Rep. Jerry Carl of Mobile in the also newly redrawn, conservative 1st congressional district.