Currently there are four candidates vying for the Republican nomination to be Alabama’s next secretary of state. Current Secretary of State John Merrill is ineligible to run due to term limits.
Secretary of State candidate Christian Horn said his campaign was about more than just the office he was seeking.
Monday, Horn joined WVNN’s “The Yaffee Program” to discuss what he hoped to accomplish for the Yellowhammer State.
“[M]y whole campaign has been about racial healing,” he said, “being able to go from the past to the present, and I do believe that black and white and all others are just colors. We are intertwined souls. We want to be able to have great lives, and I think that that’s why I’m the very best candidate at this time, and if God has his way, I promise you I’ll work every day to make certain that we’ll heal this divide of black and white, and we’ll be able to come together as one blood. And we’ll be able to serve our community and serve our God.”
The candidate explained why his family’s story was also part of Alabama’s story.
“I speak specifically to the history of our state,” he said. “I’m from the bottom of the slave ship, the Clotilda, which was just remerged last week, all the way to Selma, where we earned the right to have freedom and everyone the right to vote, and certainly our soldiers, our veterans, who were denied the ballot box who happened to be black, whether they were Tuskegee airmen or just regular army guys who served their country, came back and could not vote because of Jim Crow.”
Horn then talked about how this relates to what he can accomplish as Alabama Secretary of State.
“I believe as secretary of state,” he continued, “as a constitutional officer of the state that we should lead with the kind of empathy that we are not our past. The secretary of state should be someone who’s able to go to every community, every county, and talk about voter registration, voter information, but also have a frank discussion about what it means to know the Constitution and understand that Constitution, and be able to meld that and not just be a symbol, but to be an active role.”
He emphasized that it was way past time to heal the racial divides in this country.
“Enough is enough,” he said. “and our next generation should not pass on the burdens of our past, and I’m sick and I’m tired, but I’m so energized that across this state Alabama has embraced me as a candidate. Someone who might not have even been liked. They tend to give me some love, and I love the people of Alabama, but I want this to end. It’s time for us to heal. It’s time for us to get our children together.”
Horn said he could play a pivotal role in being a leader for the next generation of Alabamians.
“[H]opefully Alabama will choose me,” he continued, “and if they do they can get someone who’s going to fight every single day to heal this land and Alabama can be the greatest story of where we are to where we’ll be tomorrow.”
Horn is one of four candidates in the Republican primary for the position. The other candidates are Wes Allen, Jim Zeigler and Ed Packard.
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” Weekdays 9-11am on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
