Polls open at 7 a.m. today as seven candidates face off in a special election to fill the Alabama State House seat representing District 55 in the Birmingham area.

The district includes much of the west side of Birmingham, part of the city’s south side and Fairfield.

The candidates, all Democrats, are seeking to replace former state Rep. Fred Plump who resigned from office after pleading guilty to federal corruption charges.

The candidates are Kenneth Coachman, Travis Hendrix, Phyllis E. Oden-Jones, Ves Marable, Cara McClure, Sylvia Swayne and Antwon Bernard Womack.

If no candidate receives a majority of the votes, a runoff election will be held Oct. 24.

Here’s what to know about each candidate:

Kenneth Coachman:

Coachman, 67, is a former two-term mayor of Fairfield and the chief of staff at Miles College. After being out of politics since not seeking reelection in 2016, Coachman said he felt called to serve after examining the state of the district and the void in leadership.

“When I look at the state of District 55 I find that it cannot afford to elect a person that needs on the job training,” he said. “We need a person with proven integrity, leadership, and experience. District 55 needs someone who is prepared to serve from day one and who is accessible at all times.”

A lifelong resident of Jefferson County, Coachman said he is familiar with the district and would work to represent all of its residents. He cites public safety, economic development and education as his primary areas of concern.

Coachman said he would also like to revisit the issue of Alabama establishing a lottery for education.

In addition to education, Coachman said he would press for greater economic development opportunities in the district.

“District 55 is ripe with economic development opportunities. I would make sure local and state business and economic development organizations know that District 55 is open for business and should be strongly considered for the same opportunities afforded to other districts in the area,” Coachman said. “It has some blight, yes, but I would be working to put more money back into District 55.”

Travis Hendrix

Hendrix, 40, says his knowledge of the community and personal obstacles he’s overcome make him uniquely qualified to represent his neighbors at the State House.

After dropping out of high school, Hendrix rebounded, went to college and now serves as a sergeant for the Birmingham Police Department.

“I really do understand the needs of the people because I personally experienced them,” said Hendrix, who lost his bid for the House seat in 2022. “The resource that saved me was education, so I really want to advocate for education by making sure these students and the teacher have all the tools and the resources they need to continue to be successful. I want to bring some value and a better quality of life to my neighborhood, in particular Ensley and Fairfield because it has been suffering for so long.”

Hendrix also knows the personal toll that violence has on families. He lost two brothers and an uncle to gun violence.

“Everybody wants to feel safe,” he said. “From Fairfield to Highland Avenue, everybody wants to feel safe.”

Phyllis Oden-Jones

Oden-Jones, 64, is a Fairfield Councilwoman and retired Birmingham police officer. Retirement from one career began service in another field of public service.

“After I retired, I just wanted to see what I could do to help the city grow,” she Oden-Jones, a lifelong resident of the area who sought the District 55 seat in 2022. “Once I got on the council, I found out that it was bigger than that. You can’t do it on the level that I was on, so people in my community asked me to run for this position because they know that they can trust me to represent them, and they can trust me to bring resources to our community. They know I can take that to the state and try to work with people who can advance our district and our community.”

Oden-Jones named public safety among her primary concerns. She said safety affects residents through the expanse of the district.

“If our communities are safe, we can have economic development, better education and other things that we need and don’t have,” she said.

Once communities are safe and residents feel safe, then leaders are better able to tackle other quality of life, educational, and economic development issues, Oden-Jones said.

“It’s going to take community engagement,” she said, listing several unmet needs regarding child recreation, mental healthcare and reentry for the formerly incarcerated.

Ves Marable

Marable, a former member of the Fairfield City Council, lists public safety, economic growth and community awareness among the top issues in the race.

A graduate of Alabama State University, Marable, 71, earned a law degree from the Birmingham School of Law. A longtime musician, Marable is also president and CEO of his production company. He also previously served on the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles.

“We have to make absolutely, positively sure that we are sending the right candidate to represent us,” he said in a social media campaign video message. “I’ve got the qualifications, I’ve got the experience, and I’ve got a proven track record.”

Marable in his message said the district has gone too long without representation. He called the election a critical moment.

“The people in District 55 want the very best representation that they can get, and I assure you that is me,” he said.

Cara McClure

McClure, 54 is founder and executive director of Faith & Works, a nonprofit community activist organization with the goal of linking churches to social action.

McClure, who previously ran for the state’s Public Service Commission in 2018, calls her run for office an extension of her community activism.

“I’m not just another person trying to grab a title,” she said. “I want to put the work that I’m doing on a platform to put more eyes on it to bring more awareness.”

McClure said the issues facing District 55 are personal to her, such as homelessness, fairness in voting and the need for more grocery stores. food deserts.

McClure is the main plaintiff in a current federal lawsuit that challenges the voting district lines for the Jefferson County Commission. Plaintiffs in the case allege that county commissioners gerrymandered district lines to dwarf the voting rights of Black residents. They want the current map tossed out, new lines drawn, and a special election as early as next year.

“We have a huge opportunity here in Jefferson County and I took the lead and put my name on that,” she said. “I’m not building Cara McClure, I’m building a movement. I’m building something that’s going to outlast me.”

Sylvia Swayne

Swayne, a 26-year-old Birmingham resident is the first transgender woman to run for state office. But she said her gender identity is not the sole definition of her campaign.

“It certainly informs my perspective. It’s not something I’m afraid to talk about. It’s who I am,” she told AL.com in August. “But the reason I’m running is because there’s a culture of political division that is not only in this state but across the country,” Swayne said. “And it’s not just affecting trans people, it’s affecting all sorts of people.

Rather, Swayne said she is running to be a voice for issues that are not being currently addressed.

“We’re not activating people in the community, or young people, to oppose or speak out about what’s going on at the Capitol,” Swayne said. “And for me, I realized that if that’s the environment that we’re tolerating, then somebody has to work with people to change. I think at the state level is where we see a lot of division.”

Additionally, Swayne listed state investment in mass transportation among her priorities.

Swayne has a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Alabama. She manages customer service quality analysts for a Birmingham company where she has worked for about five years.

Antwon Bernard Womack

Womack, 35, has run for Birmingham school board, the state legislature and mayor of Tarrant. The Birmingham resident and neighborhood officer serves on the Alabama Democratic Party’s State Executive Committee.

Womack named gun violence as a major challenge that should be addressed from a state perspective. Womack said a balance must be found to address gun violence and the proliferation of weapons.

For example, he said Alabama’s open carry law sends the wrong message for some seeking lawlessness and also cripples law enforcement. He calls for new rules that do not infringe upon Second Amendment rights but also make sure that there’s some accountability in place to catch those who have illegal guns on the street.

Economically, Womack said the lawmakers should focus on supporting and recruiting stable small businesses within the district. Doing so would fill empty commercial spaces, generate revenue, and would also deter crime, he explained.

“Wylam is a gold mine. Fairfield is a gold mine, but investors don’t know this if you don’t come to them,” he said.

Womack also chaired the party’s former LGBTQ Caucus.

“If elected to the legislature I would be the first African American male to serve in the legislature that’s a part of the LGBTQ community,” he said. “That is something to be proud of looking at the history of our state looking at racial equality and you also look at what we as African Americans have gone through just to get to this point now.”