SCOTTSBORO – It wasn’t that long ago that the staging area for the Jackson County, Ala. Republican Party could have been a phone booth. However, this last general election primary has shown the politics of Alabama’s northeastern-most county have done a complete 180-degree reversal.
Earlier this year, 93 percent of the participants in the June 5 primary voted on the Republican ballot, suggesting that Jackson County is now among Alabama’s most reliably GOP counties.
According to State Sen. Steve Livingston (R-Scottsboro), a gathering of the Jackson County Republican Party early Saturday morning at the Scottsboro Western Sizzlin’ was an effort to rekindle the initial spark that led to his county’s GOP transformation.
Livingston explained to Yellowhammer News how that effort began and how the results were almost immediate.
“In 2012 and 2013, when we first sat down with the executive committee, and there were probably six people in the room in Jackson County,” Livingston said. “It was two candidates, their wives, and two executive board members. Since then, the party in Jackson County has grown. They did energize Jackson County in 2014 in this same room, which is kind of what we’re trying to duplicate today. This place was full, wall-to-wall, standing room only. We had the [House] speaker and the [Senate] pro tem.”
Although the numbers are in Republicans’ favor in Jackson County and throughout the state, Livingston said complacency was his party’s key concern for the November elections.
“One of the things we’re concerned about, the Senate caucus is concerned about is complacency this year. Alabama is doing so well,” he added. “The economy is good in Alabama. People just won’t go out and go vote. We’re going to do a little bit of a get-out-the-vote campaign through the Senate caucus and members of the caucus. Let’s get folks out and go vote.”
That was a message echoed by Alabama Republican Party chairwoman Terry Lathan, who made the trip from her hometown of Mobile to the opposite end of the state. She warned Republicans not to look at the “scoreboard,” given their apparent strength in numbers and urged those in attendance to approach November’s election the same way University of Alabama head coach Nick Saban each football game.
“When you have a 93 percent vote in the Jackson County Republican primary like we saw on June 5 – I mean, that’s phenomenal,” Lathan said to Yellowhammer News. “That’s just off the charts. That’s the great news, but the scary news is people can take that for granted and be complacent. That’s not what champions do. Champions turn right around and protect what they got, and try to fix and grow. So, I have no doubt that in Jackson County, especially by the large crowd we saw this morning that’s going to happen.”
Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville), whose November election Democratic opponent Peter Joffrion is running on a hard-left platform, told Republicans gathered at the Scottsboro event that Democrats sought to gain advantages over Republicans with gender and race.
The Huntsville Republican warned should Democrats succeed with implementing these divisive strategies that the nation could be on a path to socialism, which he explained had not worked out well for Venezuela.
Brooks, who was the first of his family to be Republican and was at the forefront of a trend that goes back to the early 1980s, said Jackson County’s transformation from Democrat to Republican was a result of the modern Democratic Party’s embrace of socialism.
“Jackson County has seen the stark change in what the Democratic Party’s values are,” Brooks said in an interview with Yellowhammer News. “Twenty, thirty years ago, Jackson County was solid Democrat. Now they’re on the verge of being solid Republican. And it’s because the Democratic Party nationally has been captured by radical socialists’ amoral interests that do not represent Alabama, the Tennessee Valley or Jackson County. I’m appreciative that so many voters in Jackson County take the time to find out what’s really going on and have abandoned a party that has abandoned them.”
Brooks called the national contest for control of the U.S. House of Representatives a “toss-up,” and said if it went in favor of Democrats, it could have repercussions.
“It’s a toss-up,” Brooks replied when asked for a November midterm prediction. “The socialist wing of society, the amoral wing of society is working very, very hard. They are highly motivated to go vote. Freedom-loving Americans – it is incumbent upon them to turn out and vote. If they vote — we keep the House, we keep the Senate. If freedom-loving Americans do not vote, then you’re going to have two years of gridlock. You’re going to have impeachment efforts. You’re going to have a declining economy instead of a prosperous economy. And long-term, there will be hell to pay for our country.”
Also attending Saturday’s event was Secretary of State John Merrill. He stressed the importance of the politics and culture of places like Scottsboro because he said they represented the “heartbeat” of Alabama values.
“I’m excited about being in Jackson County this morning,” Merrill said to Yellowhammer News. “Scottsboro is a heartbeat of Alabama when it comes to conservative people, conservative values, strong morals, people who are dedicated to doing the right thing, the right way – not just politically but in every aspect of their lives. To be able to come this morning and support an activity that was put together over the last few months to promote this as we head to the general election is something that I needed to be a part of today. So I’m excited about the energy that was in this room and the future of Alabama.”
Merrill touted his goal of traveling to all 67 counties at least one time every year, noting that since the beginning of 2018, he had been to 52 of the 67 counties for an overall total of 391 unique visits. That, he argued, was an essential part of finding this heartbeat, which would be important headed into 2019 and the year’s legislative session in Montgomery.
“When you do that much traveling, and you see our people at that level where they are, it helps you understand what’s important to them, and so you can make sure you are promoting those things that they want addressed. That’s one of the things I’m excited about doing as we go back and start the legislative session in March of next year. But we really need to continue to give attention to those things that are the heartbeat issues for Alabama.”
Republican lieutenant gubernatorial nominee Will Ainsworth, a native of nearby Guntersville in adjacent Marshall County, is also in the midst of an effort to barnstorm the entire state of Alabama as Election Day approaches.
Ainsworth assessed the current status of his campaign effort with the economy being at the forefront of that.
“[The campaign is] going well,” Ainsworth said to Yellowhammer News. “You know, we’ve been all over the state. Just this week, I’ve been to Huntsville. I’ve been to Dothan, Birmingham, Montgomery. You know, the thing we’re hearing from people all around the state is they’re excited about all the opportunities in the economy. They’re very happy with Gov. Ivey and the legislature’s leadership, very pleased with what President Trump’s doing – a lot of excitement and I’d say 60-70 percent of the people in Alabama are happy with the direction of the state.”
Ainsworth is the heavy favorite in his contest against Florence Democrat Dr. Will Boyd. Ainsworth called Jackson County “home turf” and noted its unique position given its natural resources and proximity to economically thriving Huntsville.
“It’s my home turf,” he said. “I grew up in Marshall County. I’ve lived there my whole life. This part of the state is very conservative. We believe in smaller government. We believe in free enterprise. This part of the state is rocking and rolling with the proximity to Huntsville. Huntsville is booming. Obviously, you’ve got beautiful resources here with the mountains and lakes. It’s a neat part of the state. It’s certainly unique.”
Recent history has shown that Jackson County does indeed have Republican stripes. In the 2017 special election for U.S. Senate, it went for former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice Roy Moore over then-Democratic nominee Doug Jones, the contest’s ultimate winner, by a 68-to-31 percent margin. In the 2016 presidential election, Republican Donald Trump won Jackson County by a 79-to-18 percent margin. In the last gubernatorial election, then-incumbent Gov. Robert Bentley defeated former Rep. Parker Griffith (D-Huntsville) by a 72-to-28 percent margin.
@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and is the editor of Breitbart TV.
