Anthony Daniels Jr.

House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels Jr. is in his second term in the Alabama House of Representatives. He represents Alabama’s 53rd District, which is located in the Huntsville area. Representative Daniels has served as minority leader since 2017, the youngest and first African American to hold the position. Under his leadership, House Democrats successfully fought for and passed multiple measures to make the state more competitive in areas from education to economic development.

After growing up in Midway, Alabama, Daniels graduated cum laude from Alabama A&M University with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education in 2005. He went on to earn a master’s degree in special education, also from Alabama A&M University, and completed a certification in education fundraising from Dartmouth College.

In 2013, Daniels became the first African American to be elected chairman of the National Education Association (NEA) Student Program in Washington, D.C. and acted as a leading voice on issues of college access and affordability at the national level. He went on to hold teaching positions at several Alabama elementary schools and worked as a corporate and foundations relations officer at his alma mater.

Daniels successfully ran for the Alabama House of Representatives in 2014, vowing to increase support for public schools and early childhood education, rebuild Alabama’s workforce, ensure access to healthcare for all Alabamians, and grow businesses, technology, and services in rural areas.

In 2018, Leader Daniels sponsored a bill to create the Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering, a residential and tuition-free state magnet school located in Huntsville. The high school, which focuses on integrating cyber technology and engineering into the secondary academic experience, is the only one of its kind in the nation. Gifted Alabama students are being developed into a young workforce skilled at creating innovative technology for strong, secure cyber networks. Daniels maintains a seat on the Board of Trustees of the school, which opened in August 2020.

Daniels also serves on the board of the State Legislative Leaders Foundation, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to professional development for our nation’s current and future state legislative leaders. In 2019, Daniels was selected as a Delegate to the Academy of Achievement. He is also a board member of the One Country Project, which addresses issues that impact rural America, and a board member to the Global Forum Advisory council, which serves as a gathering place to provide support to youth and emerging activists.

Daniels is active in his community. He received the 2016 Business Champion Award from the Alabama Business Council and is one of 14 leaders from across the country selected to join the NewDEAL (Developing Exceptional American Leaders), a selective national network of state and local leaders working to enact pro-growth, progressive solutions.

Leader Daniels currently serves on the House Rules Committee, Insurance Committee, and Education Policy Committee, as well as the P3 Steering Committee, a taskforce established by Alabama’s Secretary of Early Childhood Education to advocate for pre-K and early childhood education. In 2021, he became a member of the Board of Directors of the Alabama Innovation Corporation, an entity formed to advance the development of the state’s future workforce, including entrepreneurship, rural businesses, and technology. He is a gubernatorial appointee to the Alabama Pandemic Response and Preparedness Commission and the Milbank Memorial Fund’s Emerging Leaders Program.

Daniels is a small business owner along with his wife, Dr. Teneshia Daniels. They have two daughters, Madison and Abigail, and a son, Anthony.