'Mac is back' – McCutcheon announces campaign for Madison County Commission Chairman

Monday night in Huntsville, Chairman of the Madison County Commission, Mac McCutcheon, announced he’s running for the county-wide office in November.

McCutcheon was appointed in January 2023 by Governor Ivey to complete the four-year term of U.S. Rep. Dale Strong (R-Monrovia) upon his election to Congress in 2022. Although November will be his first time on the ballot for the chairmanship, McCutcheon served in the Alabama Legislature for 16 years and as Speaker of the House from 2016-2022.

McCutcheon said his 2024 campaign brand, “Mac’s Back”, speaks to his time in Montgomery and the honor of being home in Madison County to continue a career in public service. He said members of the Commission and the people of Madison County motivated him to run.

“When the governor contacted me about this position, she called and asked if I would be interested in filling it. There were several names, good names, on the list, and I told her, ‘I don’t know.’ I said, ‘The first thing I’ve got to do is go home and talk to my wife… So, what I did was came back home, and I talked to every single commissioner because I wanted to know how they felt, what their perception of me was, how they felt about the local government, and what they thought,” McCutcheon said.

“In just about every situation, it was— I can’t remember exactly—but it was more than half of the commissioners who asked me the same question. They said, ‘If you get this appointment, will you run for another term?’ And my commitment to them was ‘Yes,’ because I knew that there were two years left on the term. The first year, I would be trying to get my feet on the ground, learn from them how the process works, and see what we need to be doing in the county. That was going to consume a whole year, and then the next year, you start into campaign mode. Out of respect for those commissioners who were working hard, and out of respect for the people and the challenges we had ahead, I said, ‘Yes, yes, I will run for another term.’”

“The second reason I wanted to run was because of you, the people of this county,” McCutcheon said. “We have some tremendous people living in this county. We have a great community here. And I say that not just from being here in the county and seeing just the county — I say that from the standpoint of being Speaker of the State of Alabama, seeing 67 counties, looking at their leadership, looking at how things are done in those counties, looking at the local governments, and how they operated.”

McCutcheon was joined by a crowd of family, friends and supporters, including fellow members of the Commission and state lawmakers. State Rep. James Lomax (R-Huntsville), read a statement of support on behalf of current Speaker of the House Nathaniel Ledbetter (R-Rainsville).

“Above all, what I really admire about Mac is that he is far more concerned with doing what is right than he is doing what is popular. I have never once seen this man back down from a challenge or take the easy way out when it came to fighting for his constituents or the State of Alabama,” Ledbetter said of McCutcheon.

“I’m proud to endorse Mac in his reelection bid for Chairman of the Madison County Commission, and I’m even prouder to call him my friend.”

McCutcheon served in the U.S. Army, in law enforcement as a 25-year veteran of the Huntsville Police Department, as a State Representative from 2016-2022, and now as Chairman of the Madison County Commission.

Grayson Everett is the state and political editor for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @Grayson270