Immigration was front and center at forum in Montgomery Thursday for Republican candidates in Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District.
Candidates at the forum hosted at the Alabama Cattlemen’s Association also said, along with Alabama Republican Party Chair John Wahl, who introduced the candidates, that it’s important the party keeps the seat and maintains a majority in Congress.
“This district was designed by a federal court to be a Democrat district, and if Republicans are going to hold it, if we’re going to win, it’s going to take all hands on deck,” Wahl said before the candidates spoke.
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A federal court in 2022 ordered the Alabama Legislature to draw new congressional districts, ruling that a previous map unconstitutionally packed Black voters into a single district. The Alabama Legislature approved a new map last summer that the federal court said did not address their concerns and ordered a third party to draw a map for the state.
The new map put most of the southern Black Belt in the 2nd Congressional District and made the Black Voting Age Population (BVAP) there about 49% Black. The district is expected to lean Democratic in the November election.
Each candidate had five minutes to speak and introduce their campaigns. Five of the seven Republican candidates showed up: Sen. Greg Albritton, R-Atmore; former state Sen. Dick Brewbaker, R-Pike Road; real estate attorney Caroleene Dobson; attorney and real estate agent Hampton Harris and Newton City Councilwoman Belinda Thomas. Karla M. DuPriest and Stacey T. Shepperson did not attend.
Brewbaker, Dobson and Harris raised issues at the border in their speech. Brewbaker said Americans are dying from fentanyl coming from Mexico. Dobson said “we have illegals flooding the border” and suggested crime and drugs are coming through the border. Harris said the U.S. is being “invaded” through the U.S.-Mexico border, making every state a border state.
A 2023 NPR investigation found that immigration authorities say nearly all of the fentanyl smuggled by people is done so by those legally authorized to cross the border, and more than half by U.S. citizens.
Albritton talked about his experience as chair of the Senate Taxation General Fund Committee. He compared the national debt, currently at $34.2 trillion, to Alabama’s budgeting, and said that it’s “very opposite.”
“Alabama, when we ran through the fiscal year last September, we wound up not with a deficit, but with a surplus,” he said.
Alabama, like every state except Vermont, is required to balance its budgets.
Thomas, who is Black, spoke about her racial identity in her remarks. She said that she entered the race because she needed sidewalks in her town, and she felt like she could help build them.
The primary election is March 5.
