\n<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, APR spoke with Dakarai Larriett<\/a><\/span>, a former corporate executive and entrepreneur who is running as a Democrat for Sen. Tommy Tuberville\u2019s U.S. Senate seat in 2026.<\/span><\/p>\n Larriett was born and raised in Alabama, where he graduated from the Alabama School of Fine Arts before attending the University of Alabama where he received a bachelor\u2019s degree in business and economics. Larriett then moved to New York where he entered into the corporate world, eventually landing executive-level roles at companies like Louis Vuitton and Whirlpool.<\/p>\n After his time in the corporate world, Larriett started his own business and became a successful entrepeneur. He is also an active member of his community, volunteering with the United Way, Meals on Wheels, and the Humane Society and leading a board of over 60 families and businesses in the Mercantile on Morris, a mixed-use development in Birmingham.<\/p>\n However, it was only after being unlawfully arrested<\/a> by Michigan State Police in 2024 that Larriett began to consider transitioning from the private sector to public service as an elected official.<\/p>\n \u201cThat really is the genesis, and I know that there\u2019s so many other issues that are important in this run, but that was the genesis because I realized that government was not working for me, and I knew that it just was not working for other people, and it was so shocking because I was proven to be 100 innocent and sober after months of pushing to receive the FOIA evidence,\u201d Larriett told APR. \u201cI also had the benefit of a high-priced attorney\u2026 and even had political connections to network up to [Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer\u2019s] office. I still have not received justice. So, it just really made it apparent to me that the system was broken, and the only way to fix it is to change the laws.\u201d<\/p>\n Larriett emphasized how this desire to pursue criminal justice reform at a national level influenced his decision to run for a U.S. Senate seat.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s interesting because I was in Michigan literally packing up my house, because I was living between Alabama and Michigan [at the time of the arrest]\u2026 It just made me realize we need to change the laws on a national scale because you can be driving across the border to Georgia, and maybe the laws are different there, or maybe they\u2019re different in Mississippi, but how do we ensure that the interactions with the police are productive and fair for everybody? That really is my \u2018why,’\u201d Larriett explained.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a national issue that we\u2019ve got to fix through laws\u2026 what I want to create is a motorist Bill of Rights that addresses all these interactions,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Not only does Larriett view his campaign as an opportunity to serve in public office, but also as a platform to highlight the issues he cares about, including police accountability.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know it\u2019s very difficult for a Democrat to win a statewide office in Alabama. Not impossible, but difficult. The attention that my race has been able to garner and to drive attention to this critical issue of police accountability would not be the same if I were running for Birmingham City Council or Alabama State House, that\u2019s a reality,\u201d Larriett said. \u201cThe run is just as important as getting into the office. Now, taking that oath of office is the North Star, I\u2019m committed to winning this race, but there\u2019s a journey of two years where I get to now talk about these issues that mean so much to me and other Alabamians.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to issues of police accountability and criminal justice reform, Larriett also stressed his commitment to expanding economic opportunity and access to quality education in Alabama if elected.<\/p>\n \u201cNumber one is obviously economic opportunity in the state. People are falling behind, let alone not getting ahead. We know they\u2019re not getting ahead, they\u2019re not living better lives than their parents and grandparents did, which is really sad. They\u2019re falling behind. They\u2019re falling into poverty. So that is going to be one of the critical issues: how do we bring jobs to the state and entice employers?\u201d Larriett explained. \u201cThat\u2019s why I moved to New York [after graduating from the University of Alabama]\u2026 when I moved to New York, that\u2019s where I started my businesses, bought my first home, all those economic and life achievements that I could have been doing here in Alabama. So, we\u2019ve got to bring those opportunities here.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe other piece that I\u2019m hearing a lot about is education and how do we improve the quality of education,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe are currently 45 out of 50 from an educational standpoint, but it\u2019s a mixed story. We have institutions that are exceptional \u2014 like I graduated from Alabama School of Fine Arts here in Birmingham. When I graduated, that was the seventh-best public school in the nation. We have the University of Alabama\u2026 I have friends that traveled around the world to go to Alabama and pay out-of-state tuition. But then we have other institutions that are not funded properly, and how do we raise the water level so that everyone gets a good quality basic education that then propels them for everything else they want to do in life?\u201d<\/p>\n APR asked Larriett what his approach to the privatization of education would be if elected, given Alabama\u2019s recent expansion of the CHOOSE Act program<\/a> and the Trump administration\u2019s emphasis on defunding public schools<\/a> at the national level. Such \u2018school choice\u2019 policies have faced heavy criticism from organizations like Alabama Arise<\/a> for depriving public schools of much-needed funds without actually improving educational outcomes.<\/p>\n \u201cThe most important thing to me is that we don\u2019t leave folks behind who choose not to leave their local school system or are not able to, for example, go into private school or other types of school choice institutions,\u201d Larriett replied. \u201cWhen I think about my personal experience, my mom was a teacher for 35 years, a public teacher. She identified that the schools in our neighborhood in central Birmingham were not the best, and because she knew the schools intrinsically, being a teacher, she got me into magnet schools like W.J. Christian, Alabama School of Fine Arts, and that set me up for [the University of Alabama], and then I earned my masters from NYU. I wouldn\u2019t be talking to you today had I gone to my local schools.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo I believe in giving families and children the opportunity to choose the right institution for them, but we also have to, at the very same time, make sure that we\u2019re funding those local schools and ensuring that they meet minimum standards,\u201d he added. \u201cMy goal is really to get to the point where folks are like, \u2018I want to send my kids to the school that\u2019s two blocks away. It\u2019s a great institution, and it\u2019s 2 blocks away.’\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to increasing economic and educational opportunity for Alabamians, Larriett highlighted healthcare as a major policy focus of his campaign.<\/p>\n \u201cThe final piece really is healthcare\u2026 Alabama is in those 40\u2019s again when it comes to health outcomes, but why is that the case? We have such amazing technology and institutions like UAB, where I happened to have been born. So for me it\u2019s really about distributing the best of Alabama throughout the state and ensuring that everyone gets a fair chance at being healthy, productive, and successful,\u201d Larriett said.<\/p>\n Larriett added that he wants others to be \u201cable to enjoy the best of Alabama\u201d the same way he was.<\/p>\n \u201cI was born in UAB, I went to [the University of Alabama], I went to Alabama School of Fine Arts, I know that we can do better by all Alabamians and I want everyone to have that chance,\u201d Larriett said.<\/p>\n \u201cEven before Senator Tuberville decided to run for governor, I knew that 2026 was going to be a pivotal year. It would be an opportunity for all people, not even on party lines, all people to say, \u2018this is not the country that I want to live in and I don\u2019t want to leave it for my children,\u2019 and I started feeling that at the end of last year, frankly,\u201d he continued. \u201cAnd just the anger from my false arrest, and the fact that I still have not gotten justice from it, and the policies that I was hearing espoused around expanding qualified immunity, which we saw happen here in Alabama with HB202. I knew that it was time to jump in officially and to advocate for the policies that I believe in and to demand a seat at the table.\u201d<\/p>\n Lastly, Larriett stressed his desire to prioritize issues, not partisanship, with his candidacy, and emphasized his willingness to compromise and reach across the political aisle on some issues.<\/p>\n \u201cThe thrust of this campaign is about improving the lives of all Alabamians. And what you\u2019re going to see over the next year and a half is this is not about partisanship. If you were to go to my campaign website, you would see I don\u2019t even mention the words Republican or Democrat. It\u2019s really about the principles and always thinking about improving the lives of Alabamians,\u201d Larriett said. \u201cYou just mentioned a little bit earlier school choice, I think that\u2019s a huge opportunity [for bipartisanship]. School choice has actually improved some critical rankings here in the state, so we\u2019ve got to think outside of the box\u2026 and think outside of political lines if we want to see the state improve. And I think that we can do that together if we work in a collaborative way and stop being partisan.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On Wednesday, APR spoke with Dakarai Larriett, a former corporate executive and entrepreneur who is running as a Democrat for Sen. Tommy Tuberville\u2019s U.S. Senate seat in 2026. Larriett was born and raised in Alabama, where he graduated from the Alabama School of Fine Arts before attending the University of Alabama where he received a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":263781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11763],"tags":[50567,94581,33871,94582,16155,11018,5285,5156,325,8348,21482,61654,29525],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-263780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alabama","tag-2026-elections","tag-2026-u-s-senate-race","tag-alabama-u-s-sen-tommy-tuberville","tag-dakarai-larriett","tag-elections","tag-entrepreneur","tag-executive","tag-meet","tag-running","tag-seat","tag-senate","tag-tubervilles","tag-u-s-senate"],"yoast_head":"\n