The City of Hoover will hold municipal elections on Tuesday, and Place 2 city council candidate Ron Brown will be one of the names on the ballot.
A local entrepreneur, Brown recently posted a video voicing his strong support for growing high-quality jobs and opportunity in Alabama’s sixth-largest city.
“Business growth — I think that’s extremely important,” Brown noted.
“Small businesses are the backbone of our country and, also, our particular city,” he continued. “I’m a small business owner, and I know that it’s very, very important to me that people [in public office] understand my needs and see where I can fit in the city and how I can help it and how I can build community.”
He then voiced support for recruiting new companies and industry to Hoover, while being ambitious and innovative in doing so.
“Call me a big thinker. I think that the type of city we have, we can have an Amazon here, we can have a Google here, we can be known as the tech capital of the South,” Brown said. “It’s really up to us. It’s what we can provide and what we can offer people to come into our city.”
“We have an amazing city,” he concluded. “We have plenty of land, we have plenty of opportunity. There’s nothing keeping us from doing it except ourselves.”
Originally from Chicago, Brown earned a law degree from Birmingham School of Law. He first rose to viral fame after penning the powerful column entitled, “I’m a black man from Chicago who moved to Alabama, and here’s what I found,” for Yellowhammer News.
As reported when Brown first announced his city council candidacy, that column, which can be read here, regained national attention when America faced civil unrest following the death of George Floyd this summer.
Brown also went viral for a video he posted on social media specifically about that unrest, warning would-be outside agitators, looters and rioters to stay away from Alabama. That video has been viewed over one million times and can be found here.
He has voiced his strong support for local law enforcement during his campaign, while emphasizing the importance of perspective and compassion when it comes to the topic of criminal justice reform. Brown opposes defunding the police. He supports increased training and tools for police officers.
“I support the Hoover Police, because I think they do an amazing job,” Brown commented in a video posted earlier this month.
As the nation deals with the COVID-19 pandemic and continued tensions, Brown believes now is the time for leaders to step up.
“This is not a time to be quiet,” he remarked in a recent video. “Everyone is very, very comfortable with being quiet. That’s not what leadership is. Leadership is putting yourself out there, being on the right side of history …”
In a statement, Brown — who has never held public office before — explained what motivated him to run for the city council.
“Everyone wants change but sometimes in life, you have to put yourself out there to encourage the change or simply become the change,” Brown said. “Hoover, Alabama is a great city to live and to raise a family but I believe it has the capabilities to be so much more than a city. … It can be a destination.”
The Hoover City Council Place 2 seat is currently held by Council President Gene Smith. Smith, instead of seeking reelection, is running against incumbent Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato in Tuesday’s election.
Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
