Help Darryl Get Back on his Feet

Our current ballot access petitioning drive was planned in the Fall of 2020 and implemented immediately after the General Election of that year. Some of you knew that, though.

 

What you might not have known is that one professional petitioner has been involved from the beginning – Darryl Bonner.  Some of you met him at the Convention in Huntsville in March of this year.

Darryl has been involved in practically every ballot access drive in this state for at least 10 years, maybe longer. He has personally collected almost 20,000 signatures for the current drive in the Birmingham area alone. In a field of somewhat contentious and competitive persons, I can honestly say that Darryl is one of the easiest petitioners to work with. Several party members have become close with him and call him friend.

 

 

 

 

Last Friday at 8:00am, I received a call I wasn’t prepared for; Darryl was not well and people were trying to locate him. Phone calls were made to his hotel, messages delivered, and then….waiting. I was able to find out from the hotel manager that Darryl had not been well the evening before and the manager checked on him several times during the night. That morning he was able to convince Darryl to go to the Emergency Room.

 

Later in the evening, multiple sources confirmed the diagnosis of either a stroke or atrial fibrillation; there were still a lot of tests being done. Darryl’s family members were coming in from Philadelphia. The final diagnosis was a stroke.

 

When I spoke with Darryl, instead of being worried about his health, his biggest concern was the ballot access drive. He’s been with us since the beginning and is fully vested in it; he wants this drive to succeed as much as any of us. Darryl was one of our top producers of signatures and filling his shoes will be difficult.

 

Darryl has gone back to Philadelphia, where he will be under the care of his personal doctors. Recovery is expected to take at least 4 weeks and he's not allowed to drive for at least 30 days. Meanwhile, he has travel expenses and medical costs that need to be covered. I hope that, with the spirit of this Holiday Season, you will give whatever you can to help him with these unexpected expenses.