Vestavia councilwoman gets taste of national politics

Vestavia Hills Councilwoman Kimberly Cook had a chance recently to get a firsthand look at national politics.

As a campaigner for former presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Cook spent several weeks in Iowa working on the DeSantis campaign leading up to the Iowa caucus in January.

While DeSantis came in a distant second place to former President Donald Trump, the experience was eye-opening, providing Cook with a deep look into the political process at the national level, she said.

During her two weeks in Des Moines, Cook was involved in multiple aspects of the campaign, such as making calls and visiting undecided voters.

“It was incredibly busy,” Cook said. “There was phone banking and making calls to identify leads for caucus commitments. We were also asked to do the second round of calls to convince undecided voters and obtain commitments. The phone bank coordinator said these voters needed a little extra ‘Alabama TLC’ to come around to supporting DeSantis.”

Cook became interested in DeSantis as his profile was rising nationally due to his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in Florida. While his decisions to keep the state open and the state’s economy running were controversial throughout national media and political circles, Cook was impressed with his leadership and steadfastness during the onslaught of criticism in 2020 and 2021 as he chose to keep schools and businesses open, while other states took a different approach.

“For children, he looked at the data and saw they were at extremely low risk of serious consequences of the disease, and had the courage to open schools right away,” Cook said. “He saw the inconsistency of allowing some big-box stores to be open and liquor stores, but not small businesses and restaurants.

“He realized the harm done to jobs and the economy was greater than the risk of the disease and chose to let people make their own decisions about going out and about, rather than having the government make it for them,” Cook added. “I had the same concerns myself as an elected official, so he became somewhat of a hero to me.”

Jumping in

Already a volunteer for Republican candidates at the grassroots level, Cook took notice of the seismic effect DeSantis had on Florida politics, especially his landslide victory over Charlie Crist in the 2022 gubernatorial election. She became involved in his campaign in Alabama shortly after DeSantis announced his intentions to run for president in May 2023.

“I realized that whatever DeSantis was doing in Florida, his voters loved it. Under his leadership, Florida became No. 1 for in-migration from similarly situated blue states,” Cook added. “So, he got my attention

during COVID, and Florida was a haven for freedom.”

As the 2024 election cycle approached in 2023, Cook got involved in DeSantis's presidential campaign. She received a call from friend and Alabama state auditor Andrew Sorrell, asking her for an endorsement of DeSantis and to join him as one of the leaders of DeSantis’s campaign in Alabama. She was then connected with Terry Lathan, the former ALGOP chairwoman, and Jay Town, the former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, to help recruit a full slate of 47 delegates that qualified four days after qualifying opened — making them the first campaign to do so in Alabama.

With the Iowa caucus on the horizon, Cook called the DeSantis campaign director to ask about volunteer opportunities in Iowa, then recruited a friend and made the 800-plus-mile drive to Des Moines, where they hit the ground running upon arrival.

In addition to making calls and in-person visits, Cook was asked to speak at a caucus location in a remote part of the state, attend and help register attendance at meet-and-greet events, knock on doors and attend town hall and debate events. It was during this trip outside of Des Moines that a historic blizzard rolled in, bringing several inches of snow and near-record-cold temperatures.

“We were snowed in the hotel, only able to make phone calls for two days. Fortunately, we stocked up on food and had power the whole time,” Cook said. “I was also concerned about the battery on my car, so we got advice from an Iowa friend to start the car once at least every eight hours. My Alabama minivan did just fine in the cold, snow and ice, even driving on snowy, unplowed country roads.

“It gets so cold that when you breathe in, it hurts. It actually hurts your lungs when you breathe air that cold, so you just have to cover up and make sure you have something over your face and have all your layers on,” Cook said. “Having never been to Iowa, I thought this was common, but I talked to people who were from there, and they said, ‘No, this was very unusual.’”

Debate experience

Cook also had the opportunity to attend the Republican debate featuring DeSantis and Nikki Haley, as well as the CNN Town Hall with DeSantis on Jan. 4, in which several protesters stormed the stage near the end of the event.

Cook noticed the person sitting in front of her was filming the town hall on his phone and realized he might be preparing to cause a disruption. She was able to alert security, who escorted him out of the hall, but others in his group eventually interrupted the town hall toward the end of the event.

“When it first started happening, the people just kind of rushed the stage, and they had some kind of a flag, and you couldn't read what was on the flag, but they were chanting ‘No oil money,’ and I thought, ‘What does that even mean?’ That's not much of a protest if you can't even understand what they're trying to accomplish.”

In the final days before the caucus, Cook said she and the other volunteers worked practically non-stop, making calls and braving the weather to knock on doors to convince donors to come out and vote during a once-in-a-generation cold snap. However, Cook said the lousy weather dampened voter enthusiasm, as only 15% of voters turned out for the caucus, compared to 30% in 2016 — the last time there was a seriously contested Republican caucus there.

DeSantis captured only 21% of the vote, far behind Trump, and with his momentum slowing, he suspended his campaign ahead of the New Hampshire primary.

Despite the setback, Cook said the adventure has opened her eyes to the challenges of getting to the polls, especially on the national level. She also said the experience has given her a new perspective on her role on the City Council and how important civic engagement is to make progress and affect positive change.

“I realized how difficult it is to get votes and engage people in politics. You have to ask them for their vote. You can't assume that they know that you want their vote,” Cook said. “In order to get the very best for your city, you have to encourage engagement, and you have to push it because inertia is very strong, and so you have to puash, push, push.

“I do think that it's helped me as an elected official because it's made me realize how important local and state politics are to the people that are served, and the closer it is to people, the more it means to them,” Cook said. “It's made an impression.”