Terri Sewell is the incumbent Democratic U.S. Representative for Alabama's 7th Congressional District, first elected in 2010. Raised in Selma, she is a Harvard-trained lawyer who worked as a securities lawyer in New York and then at the Birmingham firm Maynard, Cooper & Gale before running for Congress. She is the first Black woman to serve in Alabama's congressional delegation, sits on the Ways and Means and House Administration committees, and is a Chief Deputy Whip in the 119th Congress.[1][2][3]
Sewell was born in Huntsville, Alabama, in 1965 and raised in Selma, where she was the first Black valedictorian of Selma High School. Her official biography calls her a product of Alabama's rural Black Belt.[2][1][3] She earned a bachelor's degree from Princeton University in 1986, a master's degree from the University of Oxford in 1988 on a Marshall/Commonwealth Scholarship, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1992.[2][1][3]
Sewell served as a law clerk in Birmingham to Chief Judge U.W. Clemon of the U.S. District Court. She then worked as a securities lawyer at the New York firm Davis Polk & Wardwell from 1994 to 2004, before returning to Alabama to join Maynard, Cooper & Gale in Birmingham, where she worked on public finance and represented Alabama schools and colleges.[3] At Maynard, Cooper & Gale she was the firm's first Black woman partner, according to Wikipedia.[4] Her official biography credits her with more than 15 years as a securities and public finance attorney.[1]
Sewell ran for the open 7th District seat in 2010, after Rep. Artur Davis left to run for governor. She finished ahead of three other candidates in the Democratic primary, won the runoff over Jefferson County Commissioner Sheila Smoot, and won the general election over Republican Don Chamberlain with 72.5% of the vote.[3][2][4] She is one of the first women elected to Congress from Alabama in her own right and the first Black woman in the state's congressional delegation, and she was Freshman Class President in the 112th Congress.[1][3]
Sewell sits on the Ways and Means Committee, where she is Ranking Member of the Oversight Subcommittee, and on the Committee on House Administration, where she is Ranking Member of the Elections Subcommittee. In the 119th Congress she also serves as a Chief Deputy Whip and on the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, chairs the Congressional Black Caucus Voting Rights Task Force, and belongs to the New Democrat Coalition.[1][2]
Researched from the cited sources on 2026-10-21.
