Boyd facing Independent Challange in District 32 House Race

Barbara Boyd

Anniston physician Angela Fears qualified last week to run as an independent against Barbara Boyd, a longtime incumbent who went into the June 3 primaries without an opponent.  Fears was one of a half-dozen legislative candidates who qualified to run as independents last week according to the Alabama Secretary of State's office.  Boyd, a retired schoolteacher and education professor, has been in the Legislature since the 1980s. The only Democrat in Calhoun County's five-member House delegation, she represents District 32, which stretches from Anniston southward into Talladega County.  Fears is the owner of Fears Medical Touch, an Anniston medical company that does DNA analysis and other forensic and laboratory work. An Anniston native, she worked in Wisconsin and other states before bringing the company to Anniston about 10 years ago. Fears said she considered qualifying as a Democrat against Boyd, but didn't qualify before the deadline. Earlier this year, state officials moved the qualifying deadline up from April to February as part of a settlement in a legal challenge by the federal government.