By Lindsey Frazier, Features Editor
Glenda Jackson started her career in government as a volunteer poll worker before becoming a clerk at a city precinct, where she said she learned firsthand how the system works and built a foundation of knowledge around it.
“The process took me 15 years,” Jackson said. “From starting as a clerk, getting promoted to be chief inspector and then receiving an appointment by Auditor Jim Zeigler to be on the Board of Registrars. It was a process over years, and at the same time, I was tutoring at an academic intervention program… Anything you want, you can achieve. It takes work and it takes you wanting to submit and learn.”
What are your local connections?
Jackson taught in the Anniston and Gadsden city school systems before working at Versailles Christian Institute of Learning, where she served as an academic intervention tutor and an educational service provider through the Creating Hope and Opportunity for Our Students’ Education Act.
“I’m from Gadsden,” Jackson said. “I want to represent this county and this city in excellence, because that’s the one thing on my ministry, my spirit of excellence, Daniel 6:3, but I want to make sure that I represent the people in excellence.”
What are your values?
“I have an awesome relationship with God, which causes me to have an awesome relationship with people,” Jackson said. “I choose to live by standards that have been set by God, that were introduced to me by my parents. God, family, country. Who I am is because of who God is and who God was to my parents, who instilled that into us by going to church and being an example.”
Jackson also said her priority is to ensure everyone who can vote has the opportunity to do so. She supports the use of mobile units that can go to nursing homes, to people who need assistance from caregivers, and to veterans in rehabilitation centers.
“They should not feel like they don’t have a voice,” Jackson said. “They are why we have what we have… I want everyone to know that their voice is their vote and their votes are important, but I want them to become knowledgeable and this scripture comes from me that my people are destroyed by a lack of knowledge. Paul said, brother I want not for you to be ignorant, for my people are destroyed by a lack of knowledge. And I think that is what is happening. That people don’t have the knowledge of what’s going on and they should not be deprived.”
Jackson did not receive donations from any Political Act Committees, but she has accepted donations from the public for her campaign and has funded it herself.
“My great-granddaddy was owned. We should not be owned by anyone. Nobody owns me. I want the people to know that they are important. I’m not in it for status or anything like that; I’m in it to make improvements to the state for the people. They are the most important to God. The Constitution says we, the people of the United States. Not we the government, not me the politicians, but we, the people.”
What are you proud of locally?
For 14 years, Jackson served her community as the neighborhood crime watch coordinator.
“I got rid of, being a coordinator, 16 drug houses in 14 years, and transformed the neighborhood from being a drug-infested neighborhood into a family-oriented neighborhood,” Jackson said.
Serving as coordinator gave Jackson the opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of the city ordinances and the proper way to effect change when needed.
“It’s either going to make you or break you,” Jackson said. “You can retaliate verbally, but my intellect has taught me better, and I’m a Christian, a minister also, and my intellect has taught me you do not lower yourself to another person’s standards. You take them to court and let the court deal with it.”
What are you most proud of overall?
“We were poor,” Jackson said. “My mother only finished eighth grade and my daddy only finished the tenth. My great-grandaddy was a slave who migrated from North Carolina… I’ve earned everything in which I’ve achieved and worked for it.”
Despite coming from a humble background, Jackson said not attending college was never an option; her mom spoke it into existence from the time she was little.
“Words are so powerful, and that’s all I heard when I grew up, ‘You’re going to college,’ so I automatically knew I was going to college,” Jackson said.
Jackson earned a bachelor’s in elementary education with a minor in special education from Jacksonville State University and continued her education at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she earned her master’s in elementary education and a postgraduate certificate in administration.
In 2022, Jackson was appointed to the Republicans Operating As Missionaries advocacy group, which promotes school choice and conservative values in the school system.
“I believe that parents should have a choice in the school that they want their child to attend,” Jackson said. “Everybody should have a choice in everything that they wish to do. This is America. America provides choices.”
What will you do if you are elected?
Jackson said her main focus is the people. She said she wants to host town hall meetings to speak directly to community members and to be more transparent about what the state is doing.
“A grassroots candidate of truth for the people,” Jackson said.
What else do you want people to know about you?
“My heart’s desire is for the people,” Jackson said. “If you’re going to be the Secretary of State, you have to have a heart for the people. Because it is the official office of the people, because the Secretary of State serves the people.”
