Just outside the House chamber in the U.S. Capitol, a stairwell leading to the gallery holds a striking piece of history—Howard Chandler Christy’s 1940 painting, Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States. The massive 20-by-30-foot oil-on-canvas, commissioned by Congress for the Constitution’s 150th anniversary, has become a favorite of Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Hoover) since he took office in 2015.
“You’ve got George Washington standing behind the desk, very erect, straight as a board with his shoulders back, but he’s not looking at the other people signing or the other Founders in the room. He’s looking past them,” Palmer told Yellowhammer News, describing Christy’s depiction of the first American President.
“I’ve looked at that I don’t know how many times and thought, ‘He’s gazing into the future, and he sees what could be.”
Palmer went on to list several other notables in the painting, including Benjamin Franklin, 81 years old at the time of the signing, who is seated in the foreground. Many of the Founders, including Franklin, look directly at the viewer.
“I’ve often thought, in that gaze, are they saying, ‘Can future generations do this? Will they be able to make this work?’” Palmer said.
Perhaps the most important aspect of the artwork to the six-term congressman is the chair shown behind Washington, an actual piece of furniture still in Independence Hall in Philadelphia. The armchair features a carving of a sunburst at the headrest, a small detail that perplexed Franklin throughout the sweltering summer of 1787 as he attended the Constitutional Convention.
“I have often looked at that picture behind the president without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting. But now at length, I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun,” Franklin was quoted as saying at the summer’s end by fellow Founder James Madison.
A self-proclaimed student of history, Palmer is known for his nighttime tours of the Capitol, and he says he often takes constituents and colleagues to the painting and directs their attention to the chair.
“I’ve literally taken members of Congress right there and said, ‘Look at that chair’ because whether or not that’s still a rising sun is entirely up to us. It’s up to you as a voter. It’s up to me as a member of Congress,” Palmer said.
“It just gives me an enormous sense of responsibility.”
That sense of responsibility is why Palmer chose to seek another term in Congress in 2024, exceeding the five-term limit he vowed to impose upon himself when he was first elected. The congressman, who will turn 71 in May – a decade younger than Franklin in Christy’s painting, is undeniably focused on doing his part to ensure that the sun in Washington’s headrest never begins its descent.
In recent years, much of Palmer’s work has required some level of diplomacy, and with the second Trump administration beginning to settle in, he hopes that his connections with foreign leaders will pay off. One key focus of his sixth term will be solidifying the Western Hemisphere Prosperity and Security Alliance, which he has spent considerable time building with Latin American nations.
“I’ve been working on this for over three years, building these relationships with these diplomats, and it’s paying off. The word I’ve gotten is that the White House wants to turbo-charge this, and if I’d left, it would’ve completely disappeared,” Palmer told Yellowhammer News.
“When you’re dealing with foreign leaders, it’s all about trust and certainty. They’ve got to know that you believe in what you’re trying to do, and I’ve lost count of the number of diplomats who have been in to see me.”
The alliance would primarily work to facilitate trade between the United States and Latin America in an effort to compete with Chinese and Iranian business interests in the region. Palmer says he is now working to transfer the framework to the Department of State.
Palmer also hopes to be a part of Republican-led efforts to save Medicaid and reform healthcare. He says that his longstanding confidence that President Donald Trump would win the 2024 election and Republicans would hold their slim House majority made reelection worth facing his most serious primary challenge since his first campaign in 2014. Ultimately, he took 83 percent of the Republican primary vote and sailed to a sixth term with over 70 percent in the general election.
Despite his wins at home in Alabama, Palmer was ousted from his chairmanship of the House Republican Policy Committee last November when the Conference held leadership elections.
Asked why he believes he was unseated, Palmer told Yellowhammer News that it came down to where his focus laid in the fall.
“I was committed more to helping us hold the majority, and I wasn’t making calls to members. Someone put it out that I wasn’t going to run again, so my opponent had a number of people committed because they didn’t think I was running,” Palmer said.
“I’m in a better position now, as chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee because I’ve got oversight over the entire jurisdiction of the Energy and Commerce Committee,” Palmer added, “It really freed me up to focus more on my policies because, when you’re in leadership, you really kind of defer to everyone else.”
“I have zero regrets.”
Despite losing his leadership position, Congressman Palmer’s power and influence have already begun to grow in other areas.
Several swing-district Republicans have credited him for their wins in 2024, Palmer says, the result of a rapid response fund he started to inject money into winnable races in the final weeks before voters go to the polls. With just a five-seat majority in the lower chamber, one could reasonably assume that Palmer is more responsible than most for his party’s control of the House of Representatives.
As previously noted, Palmer also took the gavel over the powerful Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, giving him immense oversight powers over the five federal departments and seven independent agencies the committee has jurisdiction over. In this new role, Palmer is particularly keen on expanding American energy production and independence, something the President’s team has taken notice of.
“The Trump team came to me about nine months to a year before the election to ask me for recommendations on energy policy, and I told them then that the big issue with unleashing American energy and critical rare earth minerals is the permitting problem. The way you handle that is to declare these as essential to our national security, and you use the Defense Production Act,” Palmer told Yellowhammer News.
Days before the new administration began, Palmer says he reiterated this strategy to top Trump advisor Stephen Miller.
Heeding the congressman’s advice, Trump declared a national energy emergency shortly after taking office on Inauguration Day.
Palmer will also have oversight of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), headed by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., one of Trump’s more controversial Cabinet picks. The choice drew considerable ire from conservative Republicans, including former Vice President – and longtime Palmer ally – Mike Pence, for his stance on abortion rights. Still, Palmer is confident in Kennedy’s ability to accomplish his mandate.
“I think we need to see what he does. I try not to prejudge people,” Palmer said.
“I do think he’s got a pretty good case about all of these additives in our food, but I hope he realizes that we’ve got to do something on the agricultural side to make our farmers competitive…food supply and what we use to produce crops is going to be a big deal, and it’ll be interesting to see what Secretary Kennedy does with that.”
As to Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative, Palmer hopes that Alabama will continue to benefit from federal grants, but says he will not support any funding for unnecessary studies.
“I do think that there is a role for these research grants to UAB, which is not in my district but impacts my district, and Southern Research,” Palmer said.
“We’re doing world-class research that is going to save lives and improve the quality of life for millions of people. I want to make sure that we’re funding the things that need to be funded, but I think the country’s view of grants has changed, and people are supportive of serious research, but they’re not going to be into this woke stuff.”
Palmer also hopes to use his influence to boost STEM education in Alabama.
“I am a strong proponent of converting the Department of Education into the Department of Workforce Development and sending the money back to the states, and one of the things I’d really want to do is emphasize STEM education in Alabama,” Palmer said.
“We need a much larger population of technically trained people, and I think Alabama could be a leader in that.”
After a conversation with Congressman Palmer, one can immediately gather that he shows no signs of slowing down and might even say he is actually speeding up. With that in mind, it should not come as a surprise that Palmer will seek a seventh term in 2026.
“I am going to run again if you want to know because I think that this is an opportunity that rarely comes around in history,” Palmer said.
“You’ve never had a president that has gone through what he has. He’s had four years to stand on the sideline and realize what needed to be done, and we have this window to get these things done.”
Committed to serving, at least, through the remainder of Trump’s term, Palmer says he remains focused on holding the Republican House majority.
“If we lose the majority in the House, everything we accomplish in the next two years will be down the tubes. They’ll impeach Trump immediately.”
He also hopes that self-proclaimed conservative media voices will think twice before attacking Republican members of Congress.
“The conservative media needs to realize who the enemy is, and it’s not us. They don’t have a vote, they have an opinion – we have to vote. If they keep running us down, then we’ll lose the majority and see how things work out for us then.”
“I’m focused on getting things done, helping President Trump, and winning,” Palmer concluded, “Then, I think we’re going to need JD Vance or Ron DeSantis or somebody to get elected and give us eight more years of that.”
Riley McArdle is a contributor for Yellowhammer News. He is a Junior majoring in Political Science at the University of Alabama and currently serves as Vice Chairman of the College Republican Federation of Alabama. You can follow him on X @rileykmcardle.
