One of the most contested congressional seats in this year’s Republican primary in Alabama is the state’s fifth district. This is partly because there’s no incumbent in this race as the current office holder, U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville), chose not to run for reelection and has instead thrown his hat in the ring for U.S. Senate.
One of the candidates for AL-5 is arguing that he’s the right guy to send to Washington, D.C. because he’s the one who can get real results for the district.
John Roberts joined WVNN’s “The Dale Jackson Show” Monday to discuss why he’s running for Congress.
“You look at Washington, there’s a lack of leaders that are willing to do the right thing,” he argued. “We spend most of our time fighting these petty political battles, and there’s a lot of generational defining issues going on and currently at stake.”
The candidate talked about the major issues that he believes puts the future of the country in danger.
“You look, there’s a new cold war with China where the winner is going to control the global economy,” he explained. “Currently there’s one in five workers that are living, that can’t even make it paycheck to paycheck, and then you look at the illegal immigrants come and go, we’re at 160,000 a month, we’ve got real problems and we’ve got to find real solutions.”
Roberts then argued that Washington needed a new generation of leaders in Congress.
“We can’t keep sending these status-quo politicians that just talk a big game but don’t actually get results,” he said. “Typically, Dale, it’s the ones, the ‘fighters,’ they do the most complaining and get the least accomplished. We need to send people that will do the hard work and get things done, and that’s what I plan to do in Washington.”
When asked who he was referring to when he said ‘fighters,’ Roberts gave the example of U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).
“She doesn’t even sit on any committees,” he added. “I think she undermines her ability to get things done, and I don’t want to sit there and throw out a bunch of names, but it’s that kind of thinking, that kind of behavior that doesn’t provide results for the American people.”
Roberts was also complimentary of the congressman he’d be replacing if he were to win.
“I think Congressman Mo Brooks has a very strong conservative record,” he said. “And I would continue a lot of his policies. I think he’s done some good things for this district.”
The candidate concluded by saying he just wanted to be a voice for the people.
“The thing we’re hearing most is people just want to, they want to be heard,” he added. “There’s communities that don’t have, they don’t feel that people are hearing their voice or their concerns, and so we’ve been showing up in places that most people aren’t willing to show up to.”
According to his website, Roberts “now serves on the executive team for Free 2 Teach (which provides resources to teachers in Madison County), the North Alabama American Red Cross Board, the Huntsville Housing Authority Advisory Committee, and remains involved with the Blackburn Institute and the North Alabama Homebuilding Academy.”
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
