Newly-elected Alabama Rep. Cindy Myrex, R-Cullman, watched from the back of the Alabama Senate last Thursday as it passed its first bill of the session, a repeal of 2025 legislation that paved the way for a major resort development on Smith Lake in Cullman County.
Opposition to the project, which included golf courses, housing, restaurants and hotels, was a major issue in the House District 12 special election that Myrex won last year. People in the area felt like their voices weren’t heard, Myrex told Alabama Daily News. She said her promise to have “good ears” on the issue and other matters helped her win the House seat.
“The past few years, the community didn’t really feel like they had a voice, didn’t have somebody that was taking to heart what they were saying,” Myrex said about House District 12 in southwest Cullman County. The seat was previously held by two-term lawmaker Corey Harbison, who resigned in April after missing much of the 2025 and 2024 sessions.
Cullman County’s other House seat, HD11, was also vacant during the 2025 session. Heath Allbright won a special election there last year.
“I feel like my district has not been well informed on many levels. So that’s my goal, that they know about bills and they know what we’re about to vote on. I want a path for them to be able to speak to me, whether it’s email, social media, in a way that their voice is heard.”
A realtor for 19 years in Cullman County and Smith Lake, Myrex said she and her colleagues could have profited from the development. She’s for economic development — and perhaps another proposal will emerge — she said, but not over the widespread concerns of the community.
Myrex’s bid for the State House seat was her first campaign for elected office. She was a Trump alternate delegate at the 2024 Republican National Convention. She led a four-candidate GOP field in a special primary last year, then won a runoff with 58.5% of the vote. She received 87% of the special general election vote against a Democrat candidate in October. Her endorsements included the Alabama Farmers Federation and Alabama Forestry Association.
Myrex, who has two adult daughters and four grandchildren, said she felt led to represent the area she’s called home her entire life.
“We can’t solve all the world’s problems or all the problems in the United States, but we can work hard on our local government and our state government and I feel like that’s what I’m being called to do,” she said.
For this fast-paced session, Myrex said she’ll lean on her colleagues with more experience as they tackle key issues like the state’s budgets and the rising cost of health insurance for state employees and teachers.
She said she and Gudger will work together to improve their Cullman County districts.
“I wasn’t against Gudger, I was against (the bill),” she said about the 2025 Smith Lake development legislation. “We’re not going to agree on everything every time,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean I have to be mad at him and be a thorn in his side. It means we’re doing business.”
Myrex talked to ADN about some of her priority issues, including improving rural health care, parental rights and education.
Parental rights and child welfare
Myrex is an advocate for parents’ rights to information about their minor children and also protecting children from unfit guardians.
“I think parents ought to have a right to know what their children are doing,” Myrex said. The age of medical consent in Alabama is 16 after lawmakers raised it from 14 last year.
Prior to her real estate career, Myrex drove a school bus for about 10 years while her daughters were in school. That experience, she said, put her face-to-face with families with significant financial needs and children with difficult home lives or drug-addicted parents.
She said saw children initially removed from homes but later reconnected with unrehabilitated parents. Myrex said the state needs to balance opportunities to help parents while keeping children safe.
“The safety of the child is the most important thing, no matter what,” she said.
Health care
Myrex sees a need not only for improved rural hospitals, but also for first responder care. Much of the latter relies on volunteers.
It recently took first responders 40 minutes to get to a medical emergency in her district, Myrex said.
“We definitely need to take care of our regional hospitals, I agree with that,” she said. “But I think our first line of defense in health care is our first responders.”
Education
Alabama has an award-winning pre-kindergarten program for 4 year olds. Myrex said she’d like to see it expanded to age 3 so working parents and grandparents have more opportunities to prepare children for kindergarten.
Myrex is now on the House Commerce and Small Business Committee and said she’d like to see more trade and life skills in schools. Speaker of the House Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville, has said expanding career technical education is a House priority this year. Cullman County Schools was recently awarded a state grant to build a new career tech center.
“You can’t have economic growth without a workforce,” she said. “… What I see is help-wanted signs and I don’t see lines (of applicants).”
She said the system has fantastic schools, but not all parts of the state do.
“I’m for improving all schools,” she said. “Let’s facilitate educators and administrators and leaders to have gold-standard schools.”
Myrex also said the state needs to give educators flexibility in how to teach classrooms where children have varying special needs.
“We’ve got to be careful not to max our educators out,” Myrex said. “We have to pay attention to the unfunded mandates.”