HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Alabama’s footprint on the globe’s space exploration efforts is undeniable, and now one presidential candidate wants the Yellowhammer State to lead the way in putting humans back on the moon, to Mars, and beyond.
During a recent visit to Alabama, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz was asked by a nine-year-old what he thought about the future of manned space exploration.
“Some 50 years after President John F. Kennedy’s clarion call for the exploration of space for the betterment of all mankind, we’ve unfortunately lost sight of that vision,” Cruz told CQ Roll Call. “Now is the time to refocus our investment in NASA toward the hard sciences, on getting men and women into space, on exploring low-Earth orbit and beyond. There’s no question that manned spaceflight — whether it be back to the moon, to Mars, and beyond — is a critical and vital component of NASA’s mission, and we must not lose sight of that in pursuit of political agendas.”
The Rocket City’s Marshall Space Flight Center has lead the way for Huntsville being named the best city in the nation for engineers.
If the next president’s administration makes manned spaceflight a priority once again, Huntsville will almost certainly be a integral component.
As chairman of the Commerce Subcommittee on Space, Science and Competitiveness, Cruz has criticized the Obama administration’s focus “on political distractions that are extraneous to NASA’s mandate,” such as climate change.
The official attendance estimate for the Pelham Civic Center crowd is between 850 and 900 people and Huntsville’s is between 1400 and 1500 for his two Alabama visits earlier this month.
Many believe the increased attention to Alabama has been created by the “SEC Primary.” Cruz himself addressed the primary as one reason why he decided to come talk to voters.
The Yellowhammer State will join Arkansas, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia to hold its presidential primary election on March 1st. Electoral heavy hitter Florida will also have its primary in March, waiting until two weeks after its neighbors for March 15th.
The new setup, championed by Alabama’s Secretary of State John Merrill, is an effort to maneuver Alabama into a place of greater relevance in the nominating process; a move that seems to be working.
In most presidential election years through the 2004 cycle, Alabama held its presidential primaries in June, often long after voters in other states had essentially decided the outcome of the races. Now, with the new March 1st date, many in Alabama hope that their voices will have a greater impact in who represents the parties in November.
Cruz will return to Alabama for the Tuscaloosa GOP’s annual Lincoln-Reagan Dinner on Tuesday, August 25. The event has become one of Alabama’s most widely-attended political events in recent years, attracting nationally-known speakers including top George W. Bush advisor Karl Rove and former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour.
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— Elizabeth BeShears (@LizEBeesh) January 21, 2015
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