PELL CITY — Presumptive State Senator-Elect Lance Bell said he’s ready to get to work for Alabama’s 11th Senate District after his victory in the district’s Republican primary May 24.
Bell prevailed over challengers Micheal Wright in the primary, looking to fill the seat of retiring Republican Jim McClendon. There is no Democratic challenger in the race, so Bell will not face a challenger in the general election.
The Pell City attorney said he is still working out his emotions over the win.
“I’m still not really sure, I’ve got emotions going crazy,” Bell said. “It’s a very humbling experience going through the election, and I got to meet a lot of good people. Especially the Talladega County and the Shelby County part that I didn’t know. That was the one rewarding thing was getting to meet people I never would have met but for this.”
The senator-elect is not a stranger to St. Clair County, where he is a lifelong resident, a former deputy, a practicing defense attorney, and a municipal judge in Ashville, Riverside and Ragland. Bell also served as the chairman of the St. Clair County Republican Party for six years and currently serves as chairman of the 3rd Congressional District Alabama Republican Party.
Yet despite the familiarity at home, he said he spent a lot of time during the campaign meeting with Talladega and Shelby County commissioners, local representatives, and in some cases, just knocking on doors.
“For me, one part of the district, say Springville, from Springville to Calera, that’s a long way,” Bell said. “The good thing is I learned, knocking on some doors and doing some things as they are basically the same.”
He said one thing he is specifically excited about is getting to work with some of the great organizations and institutions in the district like the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind, the Talladega Superspeedway and the Robert L. Howard State Veterans Home.
Bell seemed especially excited to be able to represent and support AIDB, where his uncle played football and graduated from in the 60s.
He said meeting the people, whether they be from these organizations or just people he met visiting businesses in Calera, has already been a great pleasure, and he wants to use those people’s ideas to help better represent the district.
“There’s some really smart people that I am looking forward (to hearing) their ideas in this district,” Bell said. “Because it’s not me, it’s not my ideas, it’s our district. This is our district, and I am just lucky enough to be able to go down to Montgomery and represent the people of this district.”
He said he wants to use his “Cook Springs common sense” to help him accomplish that.
While Bell admitted he feels he has a lot to learn, he is going down to Montgomery with a few priorities, namely infrastructure, economic development and better supporting ambulance services and first responders.
He said ambulance services and most first responders across the state have been overtaxed, and the legislature needs to look at solutions.
“We’ve got some issues that we gotta back them up,” Bell said. “They are working extra hours, they are having to use a lot of overtime. Somehow we gotta figure out this issue with assisting our first responders.”
He said it’s a matter of working to get people more interested in those careers.
Bell said there are also big issues with roads throughout the district. He gives the examples of Highway 411 in Moody and Highway 231 in Pell City, which need upgrades to better serve residents.
“All three counties have some of those same issues,” he said. “We have done a good job of growing the county, but the state has not done a good job of keeping up the infrastructure there to meet the growth. We just need to make sure those needs are met.”
While he has his priorities, Bell said he also recognizes he has a lot to learn both about the senate and about the district as a whole.
He said he hopes the local officials, representatives, constituents, and his fellow senators can help him do that and help him serve the district the best he can.
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