Tabitha Isner urging voters to choose 'solutions not sides' ahead of District 2 election

Andrew J. Yawn | Montgomery Advertiser

Show Caption Hide Caption What's at stake in the midterm elections? There is a large number of state offices on the ballot for this midterm election. How will the Legislature handle redistricting after the 2020 census?

Inside Tabitha Isner’s Montgomery office, her ideals can be found tacked to walls and bulletin boards.

Posters of minority women — one is wearing an American flag as a hijab above the message “We the people are greater than fear” — are displayed above the desk. “We can end gun violence,” reads an orange sign hung between Rosie the Riveter and a World War II era sign advertising jobs for women. A quote from Exodus 23:9 completes the collage of signage: "You must not oppress foreigners."

The office is a reflection of Isner, an ordained minister turned policy analyst and mother to an adopted African-American son who moved to Montgomery in 2016 after her husband accepted a job pastoring a local church. It’s also the headquarters for a hopeful Democratic campaign aiming to wrest Alabama 2nd Congressional District away from four-term Rep. Martha Roby, R-Montgomery.

Youthful and energetic, the 37-year-old Isner has organized an ambitious grassroots campaign and cultivated a determinedly human social media persona — unfettered access she hopes will translate into votes.

But unlike Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other Democrats across the country predicted to comprise a big blue wave in the midterm elections, Isner is thought to have little chance to woo a historically conservative district that has only elected a Democrat once since 1965.

“I know I’m going to have to work for it. Martha Roby can and has sat back for eight years and ridden the wave. She hasn’t had to do a whole lot. But this is a district that needs motivated representatives. We don’t have the luxury of sitting back and letting things continue on their current course,” Isner said.

As a result, she has had to adjust accordingly and leave much of her more left-leaning ideals in her office.

Nowhere on Isner’s website is the word “Democrat” mentioned, her name appearing in both red and blue fonts.

In August, Isner invited voters to a Daleville gun range to discuss gun rights while she received firearms training.

Isner is pro-choice, but the “core values” section of her website adds more nuance, saying, “Every life is sacred, and we must take seriously the moral obligation to protect every life.” It goes on to point that statement toward Alabama’s high infant mortality rate and state, “The most effective way to prevent abortion is to provide women with easy and affordable contraception, so they can control when they get pregnant.”

“What I love about being a Democrat in an overwhelmingly Republican district is that it’s brought out the best in me. I’ve had to temper myself,” Isner said. “Because of where I am, I have to be careful. Is that important enough to say out loud? Do I believe that deeply?”

During the hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh prior to his confirmation, Isner was reported by Wiregrass news network WDHN as saying, “Only God knows what happened so what we need to do is take seriously the call to make a sober judgment about the future nominee to this important court,” a softer stance than many Democrats took as Kavanaugh faced a decades-old sexual assault accusation, and perhaps a necessary one in a predominantly pro-Trump district.

Softening left-leaning stances has become part of the political playbook for Alabama Democrats hoping to win seats. Sen. Doug Jones showed the value of appealing to moderates last year and still only narrowly defeated Roy Moore, a candidate who had twice been removed from office and was accused of inappropriate relations with underage girls prior to the election.

In his bid for governor this year, Democratic nominee Walt Maddox has said he's pro-life and supports the second amendment, moves that work to limit conservative mudslinging as much as coax undecided voters to hear what else he has to say.

And Isner's platforms appear to align with the concerns of a district comprised of the state capital, a handful of military bases and veteran health care clinics and a large swath of rural farmland.

Her top priority is finding a solution for flagging veteran health care facilities and the declining number of rural health care providers. The Central Alabama VA hospital in Montgomery has a one-star rating (the lowest possible); the VA outpatient clinic in Dothan is scheduled to close in November, and Isner said the Ft. Rucker VA has no doctor on staff "unless they've hired one very recently."

“That means all three VA facilities in the district are functioning at very low levels right now, so why Martha would expect veterans in the area to be happy with her leadership baffles me," Isner said.

Isner also wants to protect Social Security for the aging district and improve the education system.

Montgomery’s 187th Fighter Wing was recently awarded a fleet of F-35s, but after a recent report that more than half of those assigned to Maxwell Air Force Base come without their families due to concerns with the local school system, Isner, a Montgomery Public Schools parent, said, “What good is it to have an F-35 if the people who can fly it don’t want to live here?”

On issues such as immigration and social benefits programs, Isner showed more moderate leanings. She opposes a border wall, campaigning instead for immigration reform which would create more paths to legal immigration. She also wants social safety nets to be “less sticky and more bouncy,” to help those on welfare get out of poverty without cutting the programs.

On the last issue, Isner applauded the right for calling on the Democrats to account for current shortcomings of benefits programs.

“It’s so unsexy right now to be moderate. The assumption is you’ve sold out if you’re moderate, and I think that’s a sad commentary on American culture right now,” said Isner, whose campaign touts a “solutions not sides” motto. "I'm a Democrat, but if somebody else has a good idea, I'm for that. Even if that person is not on my side."

Isner has learned a lot about the district in a short amount of time after she, her husband, and their child moved to Montgomery in 2016 so her husband could pastor First Christian Church.

A daughter of ministers, Isner wanted to be a pastor from an early age. But after receiving a master's degrees in divinity and public policy from the University of Chicago, Isner found herself researching and evaluating policy concerning early childhood education.

Isner arrived in Montgomery to find a complacent voter base that only had to choose which flavor of Republican it wanted. After pushing others to seek the Democratic nomination and finding little desire, Isner found herself called to serve.

Becoming a foster parent has taught her the importance of patience and understanding, she said, and her experience as a policy analyst is something she's leaned on as experience relevant to serving in Washington.

Her evangelical background emerges when she shapes specific Democratic platforms into more palatable, less partisan platitudes. Instead of saying she supports funding for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, Isner often calls the programs “promises we’ve made to each other,” telling the Montgomery Advertiser in June, “We all believe we should keep our promises and take care of one another.”

Isner faces an uphill battle to victory, having raised $407,000 as opposed to Roby's $2.4 million. In the third quarter this year, Isner reported raising $167,000, with only $5,000 coming from PACs and the rest coming from individual contributions. Roby, on the other hand, raised $300,000 with $233,000 coming from PACs.

In any other state, Isner may be receiving national attention as a younger, female candidate challenging a member of the Republican old guard. But Alabama is not any other state, and despite Isner running a less brazenly progressive campaign than those on the left would like, many have already discounted her chances of victory, she said.

“Yeah, it's a hard hill to climb. I've seen the numbers, too. I never thought this was easy, but what I see is that people in Alabama are more interested in personalities than parties. As much as the party stuff is overwhelming, we like candidates who are real people,” Isner said. "In many ways, because I'm a Democrat in a predominantly red district, I'm going to have to work my tail off to keep this seat. Don't you want a representative who is going to work their tail off?"

Biographical information

Name: Tabitha Isner

Age: 37

Profession: Business Analyst

Family: Married, one child

Education: B.A., Psychology-Neuroscience-Philosophy, Washington University in St. Louis, 2003; M.Div. & M.P.P., Divinity & Public Policy, University of Chicago, 2009.

Party: Democratic

Offices held/offices sought: None previous.