Announcement about my campaign
When I decided to throw my name in the hat to give Alabamians a choice in November, I chose my state House district because (1) the incumbent was running for the open Senate seat, meaning I wouldn’t have the challenge of facing a 5-term incumbent, and (2) the district demographic is made up of roughly 65% D voters; I didn’t expect a Republican challenger. Last minute one jumped in the race. That’s not to say that I’m scared of a challenge because I’m not. The reality, however, is that the challenges a three-party race presents to Libertarians is near impossible to overcome.
For 160+ years the uniparty Republicrats have dominated politics in the US. They have rigged their electoral system to keep themselves in power and limit challengers’ ability to compete, thereby reducing the likelihood of you getting actual representation. Instead, more than three-fourths of Alabama elections become coronations.
They gift voter registration lists to themselves while forcing third-party and independent candidates to pay for them. They continue to perpetuate straight-ticket voting, guaranteeing that most voters will simply pick a team, color in a single bubble, and go home—unaware of how many undeserving down ballot candidates they just gifted a large chunk of tax dollars and way too much authority too.
Nationally, they control the debate stage, and the media narrative after the debates are done. There hasn’t been an Indy or third-party candidate on the national debate stage since Ross Perot in 1996.
They want us divided, to pick a team, red or blue, and to fight amongst ourselves so they can get away with fleecing us from more of our hard-earned money, inflating our currency to redistribute wealth to their cronies in the war machine and the banking cabals—who will in turn reward them with a generous campaign contribution. It’s a never-ending cycle.
Here in Alabama, you need to look no further than Governor Ivey’s 2018 fuel tax—the one that increases the pain at the pump Every. Single. YEAR. Into perpetuity. In 2018, incoming “freshmen” candidates for state House and Senate were told that if they weren’t going to support the gas tax, they would not be seeing any money from the uniparty’s big donors and would not be winning their races. This is the kind of bipartisan crony politics we need to be fighting against. It is NOT team red vs team blue, team white vs team black, team wealthy vs team poor or working class. The reality is it is team Big Government vs We the People.
For the record, this is not a criticism or allegation of any one or more candidates. This is a critique of the overall system. A system designed to manipulate and control you. To give a few people way too much power over YOUR life under the guise of “choice” at the ballot box.
I have come to realize that we can’t change this system from the sidelines. We can’t change this system by coming in last in a three-way race. Change comes through getting a seat at the table and affecting change from within.
I believe my best shot at getting a seat at the table is not through the House seat. I believe the smarter decision, logistically, is to challenge my AL Senate seat which, following the May primary, will be otherwise unopposed.
So, with all that, here’s the ‘too long; didn’t read’ version of this big announcement:
I have decided to run for Senate District 19. I will be running to represent not just the Alabamians in this district, but all Alabamians who feel they don’t have a voice in Montgomery. The more than 50% of Alabamians, the ones who don’t bother voting because they don’t feel either candidate represents them or their values, or because they have been screwed over or let down by the system one too many times—those Alabamians deserve a voice too.