Terrycina Andrea "Terri" Sewell is an American lawyer and politician.
40 Facts About Terri Sewell
2.
Terri Sewell is the first African-American woman elected to Congress from Alabama and, along with Republican Martha Roby, was one of the first women elected to Congress from Alabama in a regular election.
3.
Terri Sewell has been the only Democrat in Alabama's House delegation during her entire term in office, and, apart from Doug Jones's tenure as a US senator from 2018 to 2021, she has been the state's only congressional Democrat.
4.
Terri Sewell was born in Huntsville, Alabama, to Andrew A Sewell, a former high school basketball coach, and Nancy Gardner Sewell, a retired high school librarian and former Selma city council member.
5.
Terri Sewell's mother was the first Black woman elected to Selma's city council.
6.
Terri Sewell was the first Black valedictorian of Selma High School.
7.
Terri Sewell was the first Selma High School graduate to attend an Ivy League school.
8.
Terri Sewell was recruited to attend Princeton by Julian L McPhillips, who read about her in the local Selma newspaper.
9.
At Princeton, she befriended Michelle Obama, who served as what Terri Sewell called her "big sister" on campus.
10.
Terri Sewell completed a 158-page long senior thesis, "Black Women in Politics: Our Time Has Come".
11.
Terri Sewell graduated from Oxford with a degree in political science in 1988.
12.
Terri Sewell attended Harvard Law School for her JD degree, which she completed in 1992.
13.
Terri Sewell returned to Alabama in 2004 due to her father's health problems.
14.
Weeks after his speech, Gillibrand called Terri Sewell, recruiting Terri Sewell to run for office.
15.
Terri Sewell was the only candidate to file for the Democratic nomination in 2012, and defeated Chamberlain again in the general election.
16.
Terri Sewell was challenged in the Democratic primary by Tamara Harris Johnson, a former Birmingham City Attorney.
17.
Terri Sewell defeated Republican nominee Beatrice Nichols and Libertarian nominee Gavin Goodman in the general election, clinching her seventh term.
18.
Terri Sewell has established herself as a liberal with a focus on job creation, and arguably has the most left-wing voting record of any person to represent Alabama in Congress.
19.
Terri Sewell is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.
20.
Terri Sewell opposed the Human Life Protection Act, which went into effect in 2019.
21.
In 2013, Terri Sewell voted to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act.
22.
Terri Sewell voted for the Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act 2010.
23.
Terri Sewell supported Obama's plan to extend tax cuts for low- and middle-income Americans, but declined to discuss her stance on taxation for high-income Americans.
24.
In 2019, Terri Sewell worked with Ivanka Trump to develop policies related to paid parental leave.
25.
In 2019, Terri Sewell sponsored the Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would update the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by providing increased oversight of voting changes, updating the pre-clearance formula to oversee contemporary discrimination patterns, and expanding the Attorney General's power to send federal observers to jurisdictions in areas at risk of voting discrimination.
26.
In 2019, Terri Sewell co-sponsored the For the People Act of 2019.
27.
Terri Sewell voted for the Equality Act and the Respect for Marriage Act.
28.
Terri Sewell co-sponsored and voted for the National Heritage Area Act of 2022, which would create a National Heritage Area system and designate 19 counties in the Alabama Black Belt as a National Heritage Area.
29.
Terri Sewell co-sponsored the Student Non-Discrimination Act in 2013 which, if enacted, would have protected LGBT students from anti-gay bullying and discrimination in public schools.
30.
Terri Sewell opposes offshore drilling and opposes allowing the EPA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
31.
Terri Sewell supported Obama's decisions on Afghanistan, citing "trust" of his policies.
32.
Terri Sewell was part of a bipartisan delegation that accompanied Nancy Pelosi on a two-day trip to Afghanistan in May 2012.
33.
Terri Sewell co-sponsored the STOCK Act in 2011 and the DISCLOSE Act in 2012.
34.
In 2019, Terri Sewell voted for the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019, requiring background checks on anyone seeking to buy a firearm.
35.
Terri Sewell voted for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
36.
Terri Sewell is currently sponsoring bills to lower prescription drug costs, expand funding for rural hospitals, and to support more health studies on African American health disparities.
37.
In March 2021, Terri Sewell voted for the American Rescue Plan, which included $475 million in funding for Terri Sewell's district including vaccination support, city employee overtime pay, and hazard pay for COVID-19 response work.
38.
In both the first and second impeachments of Donald Trump, Terri Sewell voted in favor of articles of impeachment against Trump, the only representative from Alabama to do so.
39.
Terri Sewell is a lifetime member of Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma, Alabama.
40.
Terri Sewell is the cousin of Briana Sewell, a delegate in the Virginia House of Delegates.