Birmingham businessman Josh Jones officially kicked off his bid for the 2018 governor’s race at Saturday at a crawfish boil at McCallum Park in Vestavia Hills, Alabama. Over 300 attended and Jones was enthusiastic about the turnout, “We couldn’t have been more pleased with the response to our Campaign Kickoff. Today was the beginning of a Statesman’s race; we believe it will spread all across the great state of Alabama giving people the opportunity to believe that Alabama can be #1 in the things that change lives for the better for generations to come.”
A native of Jackson, Alabama, Josh works in the medical device industry and leads teams of engineers across the state that assist cardiologist in the 3-D mapping of the human heart.
Yellowhammer asked Jones why he’s running and his answer was centered on restoring dignity to the office and a sense of statesmanship:
The people of Alabama are over career politicians. We’re tired of being embarrassed, of waiting for the next scandal, and we’re tired of people running as conservatives and governing as liberals. We need men of character and conviction who possess the ability to govern conservatively and unite legislators without being obligated to special interests.
When asked why he’s not beholden to those same special interests, Jones replied that after careful consideration, he decided to put up his own seed money to kick off his campaign—$250,000 of his personal funds. “This only matters because I believe having ‘skin in the game’ proves two things—that I’m in this race to win it and that I’m running my campaign the right way, without obligation to anyone except the people of Alabama.”
Jones also stressed that he has no plans to spend his career in Montgomery, stating. “The intent of our founders was that statesmen go serve and their fellow citizens for a limited time and then return home.” Asked Mr. Jones how he defines statesmen:
First and foremost, they’re not career politicians. Career politicians make a strategic decision to support their families through politics. As a result, governing from conviction becomes very hard for them, because every decision they make, and every law they write is colored by their next campaign or their next committee appointment. That’s not a shot at them personally; they have no other choice when it’s their livelihood. Statesmen are free to serve based on their convictions and the wishes of those who elected them, and then return home to their vocations outside of politics.
Taking cues from President Donald J. Trump, Jones’ campaign slogan is “Make Alabama #1.”
“When was the last time we had a leader that was genuinely devoted to making Alabama elite, taking us to the top?” Jones said in his press release. “Imagine what we could accomplish if we had energetic leadership that believed in and fought for an Alabama that could be first in education, first in innovation, and first in job creation.”
Some of the key issues Jones says he’ll advocate for include:
- • Defending the sanctity of life
- • Promoting religious liberty,
- • Protecting the Second Amendment,
- • Reducing burdensome government regulation and “breaking the bonds of big government stagnation and oppression.”
Josh and his wife Jennifer live in Birmingham, have four children, and are active members of Briarwood Presbyterian Church.
Editor’s Note: Mr. Jones is not related to the Joshua Jones who owns StrategyWise and Clearcom Digital, the company that purchased Yellowhammer News.
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