New member profile: Rep. Kelvin Datcher

Alabama’s newest state lawmaker, Democrat Kelvin Datcher of Birmingham, says he’s well prepared for the 2025 legislative session when it kicks off in February, and that he’ll be fiercely advocating for increased investment and housing opportunities for Birmingham and beyond.

A native of Vincent in Shelby County, Datcher, 54, won a crowded Democratic special primary election for the House District 52 seat in July, and went on to win the special general election in October, defeating his Republican opponent Erskine Brown Jr. The seat became vacant after its previous holder, former Democratic Rep. John Rogers, resigned after pleading guilty to federal conspiracy charges.

Married with three children, Datcher’s career primarily involved working for city government, with his most recent roles including working in Birmingham’s Department of Community Development, and as the senior advisor to Mayor Randall Woodfin.

As to his priorities, Datcher named increasing the availability of affordable housing as among his highest, himself being the product of government programs that assisted low-income Americans.

“My mom was a single mom, raised five kids, we lived in public housing, and she was able to get us into a home using an FHA loan, and it changed our lives forever,” Datcher told Alabama Daily News Monday. “So I want other families to have that same kind of experience.”

Calling the moment his mother was able to become a homeowner a “transformational point in my own life,” Datcher said addressing the shortage of affordable housing would be among the first things he’ll work toward once lawmakers meet in Montgomery next year.

He also said he would prioritize closing the health care gap in Alabama, which refers to the estimated 300,000 Alabamians without health care who make too much to be eligible for Medicaid, but too little to afford health care on the private market.

“I’m in Birmingham, so selfishly, we could say we’ve got UAB, we’ve got St. Vincent’s, we’ve got the Baptist Health Center, we’re just fine,” he said. 

“But the Affordable Care Act will save lives and hospitals all across Alabama, and my family growing up was one of those families that would have needed that kind of support, so I am absolutely committed to making that something I talk about and work on every single day.”

Datcher was appointed by House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville, to serve on three House committees; Constitution, Campaigns and Elections, County and Municipal Government, and Insurance, appointments that Datcher thanked Ledbetter for and called “amazing.”

Q&A with Rep. Kelvin Datcher *questions are paraphrased

Q: What was your motivation in running for office?

“Understanding the impact that Birmingham has on the state of Alabama economically, and in terms of innovation, and then seeing how little the city gets back from the state in direct support and investment.

Frankly, the Birmingham area has a GDP the size of Mobile, Huntsville and Montgomery combined, so we know what we send to Montgomery in terms of revenue dollars, and all we’re seeking is a fair reinvestment of those dollars back into our region. Frankly, there’s no better return on investment that the state can make than investing in the Birmingham region.

We see the investment that the state continues to make in both Mobile at the port and also in Huntsville with their biotech. 

Well, Birmingham has an inland port that could be a huge boost for the entire state. The state could use us as a major logistics center in moving materials in and out of our state to support our auto manufacturers and other manufacturing jobs. We can be a huge support system for the entire state’s economy in that way. And in terms of biotech, we know that UAB and Southern Research, what they do for the state. But we see the focus on projects in other areas instead of getting that same kind of consideration here.

How often is it that we get site visits for major manufacturing opportunities from state agencies? We know that number is very, very low, and we know that we still have incredibly versatile sites that could (be) home to hundreds if not thousands of jobs should we have that kind of partnership at the state level that we think we deserve.”

Q: What are some of your legislative priorities?

One of the first bills I’m going to propose is to ask from the state the authority for Birmingham to create its own affordable housing trust fund. The city set aside $10 million from its American Rescue Plan allocation in order to do that, and we want that trust fund in order to grow that $10 million, we don’t want it to be a one-time investment. 

At the state level, one of the reasons we want to have Birmingham’s own (affordable housing trust fund) is because we want to set the example of the city advancing in its own program in a way that we hope the state will follow and invest in that kind of program as well.

We know that home ownership pays for itself literally dozens of times over, both in terms of direct economic impact; the property tax that it generates, but more importantly, the stability and strength of families, and then communities that come from communities that have high levels of home ownership. 

If the state were to commit and invest in the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, they would see that return on investment immediately.

Q: What is your position on school choice, and more specifically, the CHOOSE Act that lawmakers adopted last year that will allow students to use tax dollars earmarked for public education for public school alternatives?

I know what it would have meant for me and my family growing up, it would have meant larger classrooms in my public school, the place that shaped me and gave me and my brothers and sister the opportunity.

We have to find ways to not only preserve funding that’s there for our (public school) students, we’ve got to increase it. So I think if folks were really serious about opening the doors of access and opportunity in this way for families, they would have put a (permanent) working class cap on the amount of money that families could make to be eligible for this program. 

Instead, families like mine, who already have kids in private school, we’re going to be the ones who benefit much more than the families who people talk about they’re trying to benefit.

So if you show me a working-class cap on the amount of money that families can make in order to benefit from this program, we can have that conversation, but I do not expected for them to do it because frankly, this is a ruse in order to take money from public schools and give it to wealthy families who are already in elite private schools.