On Monday night, several candidates running in the March 5, 2024 Republican primary in Alabama addressed the Butler County GOP Executive Committee.

Alabama’s new 2nd Congressional District is almost evenly split between Black and White voters, therefore the possibility of the seat flipping from Republican to Democratic control is present. Local, state and federal Republican leaders are working hard to prevent that — but first they’ll have to select their nominee.

“With the new district lines it is imperative that we get a strong Republican candidate for the second congressional district,” Butler County GOP chairman Cliff Burkette explained.

Among candidates present in Butler County included former Alabama State Senator Dick Brewbaker, current State Senator Greg Albritton (R-Atmore), and Montgomery real estate attorney Caroleene Dobson.

“America is on a death spiral fiscally,” Albritton told the local conservative group. “We just can’t afford what we are doing where we are $34 trillion in debt.” Albritton contrasted that with the fiscal situation of the State of Alabama, for which he oversees the Senate general fund budget committee.

RELATED: CD2 voters report favorability of elected officials, outlook on GOP candidates

“We have balanced budgets,” Albritton said. “We do things in a very conservative way where we do not spend every dime. We are sound fiscally and the U.S. is not. We have paid our debts off they continue to borrow. They spend every dime and then some.”

“I want to do things differently,” Albritton said of his plan to restore fiscal restraint to federal spending.

Albritton also spoke to his residency within the district and how he maintains homes in both Atmore (CD1) as well as a home in Conecuh County (CD2), where he has lived for 36 years.

Former state lawmaker and longtime automotive businessman Dick Brewbaker is also running for the nomination, saying he believes in liberty, security, and limited government, and that the federal government should “stay out of our pockets, stay out of our schools, and leave our businesses alone.”

“The major job of government is to secure our rights, not give them to us,” Brewbaker said. “Our rights come from God.”

Brewbaker also said the First and Second Amendments were under attack in Alabama from Washington and the repercussions of failed Democratic policies extend to the state.

RELATED: Alabama Realtors announce highly sought-after endorsements in 2024 GOP primary

“We have 150 Americans dying every day from fentanyl made in China brought across the southern border,” Brewbaker said. “We don’t even know how many people they already have in place because we aren’t securing our border. 400,000 people came in last month. That is a city the size of Pittsburgh. It is not sustainable.”

Brewbaker blamed the Biden administration for the high inflation particularly food inflation because of Biden’s energy policies.

“Your economic security is under threat,” Brewbaker said. “Why because of the energy policies. We were actually energy independent. He was in office for ten minutes before he reversed that trend.”

“Presidents for thirty years worked for energy independence,” Brewbaker said. “We finally achieved it and Joe Biden threw it away on the first day.”

Caroleene Dobson brings to bear a deep connection with Alabama farmers to the race.

“I was the first Republican to qualify in this race, but I am not a politician,” Dobson said. “I grew up on a cattle farm. My grandmother taught school here in Greenville. My mother works at the hospital here in Greenville so I have spent a long time coming to and through Greenville in my life.”

“We have got to have a better country, so I am fighting for a safer and more secure America for our kids,” Dobson said.

“We are being invaded right now. We have illegals flooding across the border. It is not just the crime, the drugs, and the terror cells which are all huge concerns, but it is also the sheer number of non-taxpayers that are going to be using our social services is going to cause our economy to collapse. We need to send everybody home, we have got to build a barrier, and we have got to adopt a stay in Mexico policy.”

Freedom without opportunity does not mean a lot,” Dobson continued. “We have got to be energy independent,” Dobson said. “It is not only that the higher cost of fertilizer and gas makes our goods more expensive; but it also is because we can not be dependent on foreign nations for our source of energy.”

Dobson said the new district “will not be decided in the primaries” and that the fate of a conservative majority in the House of Representatives hangs in the balance.

RELATED: Newly drawn Second Congressional District attracting wide field of candidates

Former State Senator Bryan Taylor also spoke to the group about his bid for Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. He reiterated calls that his opponent, Associate Justice Sarah Stewart, “is the most liberal justice on the Alabama Supreme Court.”

Taylor said Republicans recognize that, “The last bastion of hope for upholding the laws passed by your representatives is the courts.”

“We don’t need judicial activism on our courts,” Taylor said. “As Dick Brewbaker said earlier, We have too many people who think the constitution is the source of our rights. I will go one step further and say that we have too many judges on the bench that think they are the source of our rights. Our rights come from God.”

Taylor argued that Stewart recently made the wrong decision in a medical malpractice case where the court upheld a high jury verdict against the hospital for causing a man’s death.

While Taylor said that everyone agrees Springhill was at fault, “The jury verdict was outrageous. It was the highest jury verdict in the history of Alabama.”

“We have too many judges who do not have the fortitude to rule on conservative principles,” Taylor said.

Judge Cleve Poole also addressed the group and said that he’s running for re-election for Alabama’s 2nd Judicial Circuit (Lowndes, Butler and Crenshaw Counties).

The eventual Republican nominees in both CD2 and Chief Justice will still have to face Democratic opponents in the November 5, 2024 general election.

To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email [email protected].