HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — Qualifying has now closed in the special election to fill the Alabama Senate District 9 seat, which includes Marshall County, southwest Madison County and northern Blount County.
Longtime Senator Clay Scofield, a Republican, resigned the seat last week to take a job with the Business Council of Alabama.
The Alabama Republican Party opened its qualifying for the seat Monday morning and Tuesday at 5 p.m. marked the deadline for major party candidates to qualify.
Last week Gov. Kay Ivey set the election dates. The primary is set for Jan. 9, a runoff – if necessary — will be on Feb. 6. The general election will be April 23.
Three Republican candidates have qualified to run, according to the Alabama Republican Party website.
The Alabama Democratic Party website does not list any Democrats qualifying to run for the seat.
The Republicans qualifying for the race include two current house members, House District 26 Rep. Brock Colvin and House District 27 Rep. Wes Kitchens – and Stacy George, a former candidate for governor.
News 19 reached out to all three candidates and asked about why they’ve chosen to run for the seat. Colvin, a fifth-generation Marshall County native, was first elected to the Alabama House last year.
“Senator Clay Scofield has been an excellent public servant for District 9 and specifically Marshall County,” Colvin said in a news release. “I believe I am qualified to continue building upon the conservative groundwork he has laid and will always work hard for the people of northeast Alabama.”
Colvin’s education and work background is in finance.
“I will always protect the rights of the voters,” he said. “I believe parents should have a say in what is being taught in our schools. I will always stand up to the woke liberal left as they try to force biological-born males into female bathrooms. This is Alabama. We will never stand for that type of ideology.”
Kitchens, who was elected to the Alabama House in 2018, represents the Guntersville area.
“Senate District 9 is my home and I’m committed to serving the people of Blount, Madison and Marshall counties,” he said. “Since being elected in 2018 to the Alabama House of Representatives, I have consistently been named one of Alabama’s most conservative legislators. I’m running for the Senate because I know I can help bring good-paying jobs to our district, and I want to continue to fix our roads and bridges.”
“During my career, I’ve helped to increase funding for local schools, been a staunch advocate for school safety, stood up to wasteful spending, and I’ve never wavered from supporting Alabama values,” Kitchens added.
George worked for the Alabama Department of Corrections for 13 years, is a former Morgan County Commissioner, and is a small business owner and farmer.
“I want to use my years of experience as a tool to recruit industry and make District 9 more tied to the many job opportunities in North Alabama,” he said. “I worked 10 years at Wyle Laboratories in Madison.
“I want to start a movement to completely eliminate the grocery tax in Alabama,” he said. “I want to start a movement to repeal the 10-cent gas tax put on the people a few years ago as well. I want to stop the billion-dollar prison construction that is out of control in Montgomery. I have never voted for even garbage increase in Morgan County. We need someone in District 9 who is not a Montgomery insider that is available and on the ground in his district.”
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