Terri Sewell

A Birmingham educator and nonprofit leader hopes to make Alabama’s 7th Congressional District, held by U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell since 2011, competitive.

Ammie Akin, 44, is running in the Republican special primary Aug. 11, and hopes to face Sewell, a Democrat, in the general election in November.

Minister David W. Perry, of Selma, also is running.

“How long do these people have to wait for the basics, the basics that are here in Birmingham or Huntsville or parts of Tuscaloosa?” she told AL.com this week.

Akin said people in the district need better access to good education, jobs, internet and healthcare.

“I don’t think it should take that long. I spent my entire career solving problems. It didn’t take me 20 years to help a child.”

Akin has worked as a classroom teacher, a school administrator and a college education professor.

Her career includes work at Hoover High School; the University of Alabama; Better Basics, a reading nonprofit; and Briarwood Christian School.

She is the founder of the Hub in the Hills, which aims to make it easier for nonprofits to operate in Birmingham.

The district includes parts of Birmingham, Montgomery, Tuscaloosa and Selma.

Its population is 52% Black, and was originally drawn to be one of the state’s majority-minority districts, as required by the Voting Rights Act.

Before Sewell, the seat was held by Democrats Artur Davis and Earl Hilliard, who in 1993 became Alabama’s first Black Congressman since Reconstruction.

Akin said her key issues are addressing affordability, crime and education.

“I believe that communities are the best to decide what education looks like without overreach of the federal government,” she said.

“Children only get one chance at this, and so my question is, what’s not working, and what can we do to help those on the front lines that are showing up every day because they love children.”

While Alabama overall has improved in education rankings in the past five years, three school systems in the district -- Sumter County, Dallas County and Bessemer -- are currently under state intervention.

Akin said she has already spent time traveling around the district speaking to people. She referenced a conversation with a farmer in Hale County who praised President Donald Trump’s decision to remove previous environmental protections for rivers.

“They’re too busy doing the work to actually be in Washington and dealing with things like EPA regulations,” she said. “Well, that’s something that I can do on their behalf.”

Alabama’s special primary came after Republicans redrew the state’s congressional map in May. Residents in the 1st, 2nd, 6th and 7th Congressional Districts will have a chance to vote.

The new map aims to give at least one more seat in Congress to Republicans.

Currently, five seats are held by Republicans. The party especially wants to flip the 2nd Congressional District, currently held by Rep. Shomari Figures, a Democrat.

Republicans have said they want to see every seat held by their party.

Sewell and Figures, who are both Black, are running for reelection.

Sewell has said that redistricting will hurt Black voters and the overall reputation of Alabama.

“So many of us have worked to try to improve the image of Alabama, so that we can attract industries like Mercedes, Honda, all the others,” she said in Montgomery this spring, as the legislature approved the use of new voting maps.