Hazel Floyd grew up in the Riverview community in Valley, Alabama, attending Fairfax Elementary and W.F. Burns Middle School before graduating as salutatorian from Valley High School. She was section leader in the marching band, president of the Key Club, Mu Alpha Theta, and the National Honor Society. She averaged over 100 hours of community service annually. She earned her CPR certification as a teenager and has renewed it every year since.
She is running for the Alabama House of Representatives.
By the time Floyd crossed Valley High’s graduation stage, she had already completed a year of college coursework through dual enrollment at Southern Union State Community College. She went on to earn her Associate’s degree from Southern Union — attending both the Opelika and Valley campuses — then transferred to the University of Alabama on a pre-law track. She graduated summa cum laude with a 4.0 GPA, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Philosophy with a concentration in jurisprudence. She was elected Best Senior by the Women in Pre-Law Society. She served as president of Tau Sigma, the National Transfer Honor Society, leading a full revitalization of the transfer student program — including a student-led campus tour initiative and a trip to the national convention in Chicago.
She is 22.
In early 2025, before she had formally declared a campaign, Floyd led a student delegation to the Alabama State House to lobby for HB152, legislation removing the state sales tax from feminine hygiene products. The bill passed and was signed into law in September 2025.
That summer, she participated in FuelAL, an immersive civic engagement program at the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce that placed recent graduates inside regional business, government, and civic institutions across the River Region.
“I have gotten to meet a ton of businesses, a couple of officials. I got to talk to some of the colleges in Montgomery. I have gotten to network and know the lay of the land in Montgomery, which is why I feel like now is the perfect time to run.”
When incumbent Debbie Wood resigned from Alabama House District 38 in July 2025, Floyd was among the first to qualify for the special election. She was the only Democrat who did.
“I’m running for a Republican seat, so I would’ve been surprised if another Democratic candidate had come forward.”
The February Special Election
Republican nominee Kristin Nelson raised $58,135 and won with 83.65 percent of the vote. Floyd raised $1,527.64 — all from individual donors — and received 16.26 percent. Voter turnout was 5.73 percent. The district has been Republican-held since 2014. The previous incumbent had won her last contested race with nearly 70 percent.
Floyd’s response that night was brief and gracious. She had already signaled before election day that she intended to run again regardless of the outcome.
She re-qualified.
Her Platform
Who She Is
Floyd describes herself in terms of deep local rootedness. She attended the Bradshaw Library summer reading programs as a child. She returned to Valley High School in 2023 to mentor the marching band’s Low Brass section. She maintains CPR certification every year.
She is also, by the standards of Alabama legislative politics, strikingly young. At 22, if elected in November, she would be among the youngest members of the Alabama House in recent history. She does not shy away from this.
“Marching band taught me community. When you are in a marching band, you are part of a 100-person family. You get to know diversity in people, diversity in lifestyles, diversity in what they believe, what they stand for, what issues they have. You get to know a wide variety of people and those are your friends.”
On why she runs: “My entire life I have wanted to be in a position where I could help the most people possible. I fully believe that is government’s job. That is what we vote them to do.”
On being 22 and showing up anyway: “I’ve been in situations where I didn’t have someone stand up for me, so I knew that I wanted to be the person who stood up for the little guy.”
What’s Ahead
Floyd faces Christopher F. Davis in the May 19, 2026 Democratic primary. The winner advances to face Republican incumbent Kristin Nelson in the November 3 general election in what remains a heavily Republican district.
The arithmetic of the special election does not favor the Democrats in November. But Floyd has demonstrated something the numbers don’t fully capture: a willingness to contest ground her party has largely ceded, a command of her community’s specific needs, and a personal biography that is, by any measure, the most substantive in this race.
She came home. She is still running.