Logan Church is 19 years old and she's
already managed one successful political
campaign and not an easy one. In Virginia
she ran the campaign of Bob Thomas, the
only Republican to win an open seat last
year in the middle of Democrats Blue
Wave. But now she's running a campaign in
North Alabama for Eric Aycock
who's running against state senator
Larry Stutts. And to understand how she
got there
you have to go back to the day she was born.
Her mother Rose Church died about a
week after Logan was born from
complications from her birth. Something
that could have been detected with a
five-dollar blood test. She... when she left
the hospital she had eleven centimeter
piece of placenta tissue that was not
removed and she was hemorrhaging...
hemorrhaging pretty bad. And then 10 days
later she ended up passing away. My dad
is a lawyer. His way of coping with all
that was writing a law because that's
all he knew. So that night he went home
and started drafting a law after my mom
died. Logan's father Gene Church wrote a
bill making the test mandatory and
requiring insurers to cover hospital
stays for new mothers and infants for a
minimum of 48 hours. Now she can always
say like "oh I'd rather leave right now"
and that's fine.
But this makes insurance pay for 48
hours after a normal birth and then I 96
hours after a cesarean. And it also makes
sure they run a blood test when they're
admitted and discharged, this five-dollar
blood test that could have saved my mom.
Pushing Logan in a stroller, Gene lobbied
Alabama lawmakers to pass what became
known as
"Rose's Law." After that Jean remarried, the
church family moved to Florida, and Logan
grew up. And they all tried to put the
past behind them, until 2015 when a new
state senator named Larry Stutts tried to
repeal Rose's Law. So when I was 16
years old I got a message from my aunt
on Facebook and it said that Senator
Larry Stutts was attempting to repeal
this law and she asked me to show my dad.
So I went into his office and I was
super confused. I have no idea who Larry
Stutts was. And just the reaction on his
face like I'll never forget what that
looked like. And the very next day we were
in Montgomery. But there was something
Larry Stutts hadn't told his colleagues
in the Alabama Senate. Something too Gene
Church had never told Logan. When we got
in the car to go to Montgomery, he
looked over at me and he said "There's
something you don't know about this."
Larry Stutts, this senator, was the same
doctor who is your mom's OBGYN.
I guess he didn't think it was important to fill in his co-sponsors on the fact that
this law was passed because
of the death of his patient.
When other lawmakers learned this little
important fact Stutts' bill died on the
spot and Stutts became a pariah in the
legislature.
Stutts' said that his bill had nothing to do with Rose Church's death and that it repealed what he called
emotional legislation that doesn't improve care. I couldn't understand how
somebody could turn around do this and
then 16 years later hold on to it and
then have this personal vendetta brought
to office.
But for Logan, her story didn't end there.
They say that people who are in politics
get bit by a bug and I think that is what bit me.
First she worked for Marco
Rubio's 2016 campaigns and last year she
went to Lee Thomas's campaign in
Virginia. She decided she had just one
thing left that she wanted to do. So I
like to say I don't have a vendetta
against Larry Stutts. I have a vendetta
against people who use political office
for personal gain.
I have an issue with you know being a
politician is supposed to be being a
public servant. And when you take the
public servanthood and turn that
around and you say what can I get, you
start harming not only a couple people
in your district. Not only me and my dad.
You're harming everyone. And when it's
over what does she want to do next?
Logan says she wants to go to college
and do the things you do when you're 19
years old and you're in college. I have
not... my entire life I've not had the
opportunity to be my age. Coming out
of college my resume will still be good.
That doesn't fade away. And then I'll see
what's in store.
For Reckon, I'm Kyle Whitmire. Thanks for watching
