Tuesday in the Alabama fifth congressional district Republican primary election, Madison County Commission chairman Dale Strong got over 44% of the vote, leading his nearest competitor by more than 20 points.
Strong will now face former Huntsville City Schools Superintendent Casey Wardynski in a runoff election on June 21.
Thursday on WVNN’s “The Dale Jackson Show,” Strong said he would win the runoff despite some of the attacks against him.
“I think people saw through some of these crazy ads that were placed out there by one of our opponents,” he said, “and I’m just telling you, the proven leadership, and we stayed on the high road. We went out there and presented our case to what we want to do as the next United States congressman. It resonated with the people and we won every country in the fifth congressional district.”
Strong was referencing the advertisement put out by the House Freedom Fund, which is a super PAC endorsing Wardynski.
The commissioner said this was just the beginning of the attacks coming out against him.
“I think it’s already been ugly,” he argued. “You start looking at some of these ads that’s been bought…we have no media anymore, Dale, and that’s the biggest thing that has changed our elections. In most of these counties, you have superintendents running that media never asked them what their positions was on taxes or anything like that. So now, people can almost put whatever they want on TV, but I think that these ads were debunked.”
Strong said his message was about highlighting his accomplishments rather than going after his opponents.
“[W]e’ve been very successful in presenting our case and what we’ve accomplished as chairman of the Madison County Commission, what I’ve done in helping grow the conservative and Republican party, you know it’s a lifetime service — it’s not just showed up in town yesterday,” Strong advised. “I think that’s what people are looking at and I think that’s what they ought to do. Look at the records of the two candidates. I believe I’ve got the record to take the voice of the people, to bring Republicans together, and let’s go make a difference.”
He suggested people would turn out to vote for him in the runoff because of the serious issues the country had been facing.
“I believe people are concerned about what’s going on with this southern border,” he said. “You look at this invasion of our country it’s affecting everywhere. You start looking at this fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, the whole nine yards, you look at how many people are just flooding this border right now, that’s what’s going to bring people out to vote.”
Strong believes everyone is being affected by high prices and want change in Washington D.C. because of it.
“You start looking at the inflation, what it’s costing when you go to the grocery store, whenever you fill your car up, well forget it, they can’t even fill up their car any longer, the pump turns off at $100,” he outlined. “You start looking at our farmers and what they’re paying right now for diesel fuel and you can’t even get fertilizer, those are things that are going to resonate so people go out and vote.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” Weekdays 9-11am on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
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