HUNTSVILLE – It wasn’t what you would expect from a Democratic candidate for higher office speaking to an audience compromised of mostly college students.
Thursday at a town hall on the campus of the University of Alabama in Huntsville hosted by school’s College Democrats, Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox, the state’s Democratic gubernatorial nominee, dismissed political ideology before a crowd of over 100.
After making his pitch that there was room for improvement for Alabama, which included quoting Winston Churchill, Maddox dismissed adhering to liberal orthodoxy.
“I am not an ideologue,” Maddox said during the closing of his introduction. “I am not running to promote an ideology. I’ve served 13 years as mayor because people liked me as a problem-solver. I serve in a purple city. I just want to wake up every morning and make a difference for the people that I work for. I am proud to be the Democratic nominee, and I am proud to serve as the nominee. But if you elect me as governor, I’m not going to wake up every morning and try to find a Democratic solution to that problem. I’m going to wake up every morning and make certain we’re not 48th, 49th or 50th in everything that matters.”
“Promoting ideology, promoting party over people is going to put Alabama in this precarious position,” he added. “Never again, never again.”
According to an Alabama Farmers Federation poll out earlier on Thursday, Maddox finds himself 20 points behind his Republican opponent incumbent Gov. Kay Ivey. Maddox told his supporters his campaign’s internal polling suggests the race is closer than the poll, and that therefore he remained optimistic.
He did blame his own Democratic Party for Alabama’s transition from a historically blue state to a red state, which took place over the past few decades.
“Let’s be honest with each other, how we became a red state – Democrats were in power for 136 years in our state,” Maddox replied why Alabama was now a “red state.” “I can’t tell you that our party has every solution. We don’t. But we wasted an opportunity when Democrats were in power. And I think that’s a lesson we have to learn. We cannot forget the people that we work for, our constituents. And so, Alabama became a red state because we stopped focusing on the issues that matter to people.”
Maddox spoke out against the current one-party make-up of state government and argued for his candidacy by saying his allegiance to the Democratic Party would provide the necessary check-and-balance aspect.
“Having the chief executive officer as a Democrat … it will likely be a Republican legislature,” Maddox said. “I think that will help us form policy and compromise that is desperately needed in Montgomery.”
In responding to a question about sanctuary cities during the event’s question-and-answer session, Maddox came out against that policy and explained why he as mayor never embraced the sanctuary city philosophy.
“I think we should always try to find a pathway to citizenship for those who have earned it, but I don’t support sanctuary cities,” he said. “I haven’t as mayor. I wouldn’t as governor. Here’s why: It makes for good sound bites. It makes for good press conferences. The problem is it jeopardizes, in Tuscaloosa’s case, tens of millions of dollars that go to the very programs that make certain our immigrants and all citizens have housing, have something to eat, have somewhere to go. Those dollars go to our veterans. They go to our homeless population. They go to job training programs.”
“And so, it may make you look good. It may even win you some points somewhere. But it doesn’t do anything to change the outcome, and it doesn’t do anything to advance your community.”
The Tuscaloosa mayor didn’t altogether abandon his party’s traditional approach to governance. He continued his crusade to expand Medicaid, instituting a lottery as a means to finance education and raising the gas tax to lessen the burden on local governments for improvements to infrastructure.
The Huntsville stop for Maddox was part of his bus tour that began last week and continues all the way until Election Day.
@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and is the editor of Breitbart TV.
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