By Brandon Moseley
U.S. Senate candidate Jessica Taylor was in Birmingham on Tuesday campaigning for support from the Greater Birmingham Young Republicans at the Original Moe’s Barbecue in the Lakeview District. Taylor said young Republicans must stand up and fight for the right candidates in elections.
“We are losing the younger generation to the liberals,” Taylor said. “Not so much in this state…I am sick of seeing the Biden administration and the liberal media ruining this country. The amount of spending is absolutely egregious.”
“Government controlling the means of production is socialism,” Taylor said. “Anything they do to move the needle of the free market is bad.”
Taylor is originally from Weaver, a small community in Calhoun County.
“I grew up in a trailer park,” Taylor said. “We did not want anything from government. We wanted them to get out of the way.”
After earning her degree in political science, Taylor said she moved to Montgomery to work for Gov. Bob Riley.
“It was really an eye-opening experience,” Taylor said. “There were three different government employees involved in approving an out-of-state travel request. I was one of those people for a year and I got 60 to 70 a day.”
Taylor, who has a company that helps write grant applications, explains that the process is “Putting business plans together.”
“I went to law school at night and really planned on practicing law,” Taylor said.
But the small part-time business that she started for extra money assisting clients with their grant applications is where her heart really was. Today Taylor heads a team of 34 consultants. Most of their work is in Alabama and Georgia, but they also have clients in Texas, the Philippines, and Africa.
“The culture is very slow,” Taylor said of government. “Expect to wait six months for payment.”
Taylor said that she hears all about what Sen. Shelby did for the state but that she supports term limits.
“Lobbyists help them get elected for life. We see where that has gotten us,” Taylor said. “The person I am running against has been in public office longer than I have been alive. I don’t have millions of dollars of my own or friends I can ring up on the phone with millions of dollars to spend on my behalf. I don't have that, but it doesn't matter. It is the message."
In 2018, Taylor ran for Alabama’s Second Congressional District when Martha Roby retired.
"I started with zero money," Taylor said. "Jeff Coleman was a self-funder who purchased every billboard in the district, Barry Moore was a former State Representative who had spent a year campaigning against Martha Roby, and there was a former attorney general in the race... Troy King."
Taylor said although she narrowly lost that race, she noticed something that is needed in politics.
“We need folks to help us make calls,” Taylor told the Young Republicans, inviting them to join her campaign. “We need more young people to knock on doors. We need folks who can think outside the box. We have new ideas that work and that is one thing that we need in this country.”
On key issues, Taylor said she is pro-life and she wants to build Trump’s border wall as well as overhaul the immigration system. She also wants to serve veterans.
Taylor was critical of generous family leave and used the example of Pete Buttigieg, who is in the Biden cabinet but was away for months on extended family leave because of health issues of a child that he and his husband adopted.
“I had three kids in four years and I am pretty sure that I took calls in the delivery room,” Taylor said. “He should not have accepted that job.”
Taylor will be in Mobile on Wednesday for a meet-and-greet. The event is open to the public and will be at 2516 Colonnades Dr. W, Mobile, AL 36695-5525.
Taylor is in a crowded GOP primary for Senate. In addition to Brooks, she faces former Business Council of Alabama (BCA) President and CEO Katie Boyd Britt, Army veteran Mike Durant, and former Ambassador Lynda Blanchard. Former Brighton Mayor Brandaun Dean is running as a Democrat.
The Republican primary is on May 24, 2022.
To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandon.moseley@1819News.com.
