In Alabama, where Republicans have entrenched their dominance and legislatorshave passed some of the nation’s harshest anti-LGBTQ+ laws, Dakarai Larriett is mounting a campaign he knows will be an uphill climb. At 43, the Birmingham-born entrepreneur and activist could become the first Black out gay man elected to the U.S. Senate. But Larriett insists that isn’t the point. 

“This campaign is so about the policies, the policies that improve the lives of people, and not the personalities,” he said in an interview with The Advocate.

A career in business and service

Larriett’s résumé spans both the corporate world and community activism. After graduating from the University of Alabama, he found no opportunities at home and moved to New York City, building a supply chain career with companies like L’Oréal, Whirlpool, and Louis Vuitton. Yet he said his real calling was service: on the board of the Bronx Community Pride Center, where he advocated for unhoused LGBTQ+ youth; on the National Harm Reduction Coalition, where he pushed for solutions to the opioid crisis; and later, on the University of Alabama LGBT Alumni Association.

In 2012, Larriett founded Gerard Larriett Aromatherapy Pet Care, a grooming products company that has since grown into a global brand. He still runs the business from Birmingham, where he lives with his miniature poodle, Dada.

A defining arrest

The Democrat’s decision to run for office grew out of trauma. In 2024, while visiting Michigan, he was arrested in Benton Harbor after being pulled over by state troopers. He has described the charges as false and the experience as abusive. 

“I was falsely arrested up in Michigan, tortured by the police,” he said. In a federal lawsuit filed after the incident, Larriett alleged that officers targeted him because he is Black and gay and even discussed planting drugs on him. He sought more than $10 million in damages, calling it a case of “driving while Black and gay.”

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The case drew national attention but was dismissed this past March. U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker ruled that dash and body camera footage “blatantly contradicted” parts of Larriett’s claims, showing him rolling through a red light. The court held that troopers had probable cause, that the Michigan State Police were shielded by sovereign immunity, and that individual officers were protected by qualified immunity. 

While Jonker described Larriett’s allegations as “disturbing,” he concluded they did not amount to a constitutional violation.

Larriett says the dismissal only deepened his conviction that the system is broken. 

“Even with the body cam and dash cam, even with my political connections advocating all the way up to Gov. Whitmer’s office, nothing was done,” he said. “The troopers remain on the force, fully employed, and it really boils down to qualified immunity.” 

That realization, he added, convinced him that “fighting from the outside was not enough. It was time to change the laws and shake things up so that we can finally protect the people.”

Out of that came a platform of his called the “Motorist Bill of Rights,” which would prohibit unjustified traffic stops, require scientific standards for sobriety testing, and mandate the release of body camera footage within 24 hours. “If troopers or officers know that every interaction is going to be recorded and released immediately, they’re going to think twice about violating civil rights,” Larriett said.

Gender-affirming care is health care

Health care is the other centerpiece of Larriett’s campaign. 

“We’re less educated, we’re poorer, and we’re sicker than the rest of America,” he said. 

Alabama’s statistics underscore the point. The American Public Health Association reports that nearly 8.5 percent of Alabamians are uninsured, compared to 7.4 percent nationally. More than 15 percent of adults have diabetes, the fourth-highest rate in the U.S., while almost 40 percent of the state’s residents are obese. Black women in Alabama suffer the highest maternal mortality rate in the country. And with rural hospitals closing, many families drive hours just to see a doctor.

The state’s health care crisis, Larriett warns, will intensify under President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” passed over the summer. 

As Al.com reported, the legislation slashes Medicaid, tightens aid eligibility, and reduces food assistance, which advocates say will accelerate hospital closures and cut off care for the state’s poorest people. Larriett traveled to Washington to protest the measure alongside California U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, describing it as the difference “between life and death.”

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When it comes to gender-affirming care, Larriett’s stance is both political and deeply personal. “My approach on a number of these social flashpoint issues has been, let’s allow parents, patients, and doctors to make the decisions that are right for them,” he said. “We have way too many politicians trying to be in our bedrooms and our doctors’ offices. They just don’t have the skill set.”

He links the debate to his own medical history. As a teenager, he developed gynecomastia, which he described as “a female top presentation.” The condition, which the Mayo Clinic notes is often caused by a hormonal imbalance that causes males to grow enlarged breasts, left him struggling with depression and anxiety. He did not undergo corrective surgery until age 30 because insurance deemed it cosmetic. “The surgery hurt no one. It only made me better,” he said. “It’s a deeply personal decision, just like women’s health care and just like transgender people’s care.”

Those words stand in stark contrast to Alabama law. In 2022, the legislature passed SB 184, making it a felony for doctors to provide puberty blockers, hormone therapy, or surgeries to minors under 19. Other measures bar transgender girls and women from competing in female school sports, restrict bathroom access by sex assigned at birth, and limit what schools can teach about gender identity and sexual orientation. These laws, many of which face ongoing legal challenges, have been central to Alabama Republicans’ culture-war agenda.

Larriett says such policies are not about protecting children but about weaponizing fear. 

“It really has come down to demonizing a small minority of our population to gather votes,” he said. He calls it hypocrisy in a state that prides itself on Christian values. “Alabama, in particular, professes to be one of the most Christian states within the Union. We should actually be protecting these people.”

Education and economic opportunity

Education ranks just behind health care in Larriett’s platform. Internal campaign polling of 245 Democratic voters conducted between June and August found that improving schools was the second-most pressing issue, after democracy itself. Larriett points to his mother, a teacher, who fought to place him and his sister in magnet schools rather than failing local ones. 

“If we had attended our local schools, I wouldn’t be talking to you today,” he said. He calls for raising per-pupil funding to national levels, supporting teachers with better pay and conditions, and halting voucher-style programs that siphon money from public schools.

Economic opportunity rounds out his priorities. Larriett argues that Alabama has focused too much on corporate recruitment and too little on its people. 

“It would have been amazing to be able to stay here and work and build a career, buy my first home here, start my businesses here. I wasn’t able to do that,” he said. His proposals include job training, matching workers with openings, and establishing “innovation depots” to support small businesses.

The odds and the stakes

Larriett knows the odds are steep. Republicans are likely to nominate a formidable opponent, with Attorney General Steve Marshall considered the frontrunner. Alabama’s last Democratic senator, Doug Jones, lost in 2020, and the state has grown increasingly redder since then.

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But Larriett points to reasons for optimism. 

“My state representative is an openly gay man, and so we have representation in government already, and that path has already been made,” he said. “I’m confident that Alabamians are going to choose the most qualified individual with the best résumé and track record of serving its people.”

What sets him apart, Larriett insists, is his lived experience. 

“I’ve done the work, and I continue to do the work. Twenty years of service on boards advocating for people, real people, for health care, education, and housing for all, and building something from the ground up. I get things done, and I’m quite effective, and it really is about serving the community,” he said. “It is a position of honor, but it is one of service.”