It was also education — or rather, the cost of education — that could also soon make Hunt the first openly former stripper to hold a federal public office in the United States. The district, which covers most of Philadelphia, is the most consistently Democratic district in the entire country. She’s recently begun actively campaigning, and is seeking to unseat incumbent Rep. Dwight Evans, who has served in the House since 2016, in the Democratic primary in May.
For Hunt, the pandemic has made her run all the more urgent. Hunt holds a master’s of science and a master’s of public health from Philly-area universities, and although she currently works as a data manager at a biopharmaceutical company, her engagement with public health research and advocacy has been nonstop since she moved to Philadelphia in 2014. Congress still has only a handful of public health professionals among its ranks.
When the pandemic struck, “I realized that they weren’t coming to help us,” Hunt said of the state’s politicians. “We were kind of on our own. And to me, that’s a failed state.”
View: https://www.instagram.com/p/CaAm7GMJEyL/?utm_medium=copy_link
Although she wants to focus her campaign on policy, Hunt knew before launching it that her stint stripping nearly a decade ago could become a talking point for voters. Before the pandemic, and before she decided to run for Congress, Hunt had no plans to tell anyone she’d danced in college, she said. For many former sex workers, the stigma makes carrying a secret the simpler option. But running a campaign means becoming a public figure, and for Hunt, there was never really a question about including that chapter of her story. “I was in community and in conversation and connection with sex workers before I launched, and they said, ‘Don’t leave us behind,’ ” she said.
She was a stripper during college. Now she’s running for Congress and sharing her story.
Alexandra Hunt, 28, just kicked off her run for Pennsylvania’s 3rd District.
Democrat from Pennsylvania
