Republican gubernatorial candidate Lindy Blanchard spoke to the Republican Women of Shelby County on Saturday about her campaign.
“We started our own business in our thirties,” Blanchard said of she and her husband Johnnie. “After the death of our oldest son, I backed away from that business.
“After a year we set up our charity that is involved with helping children in the United States and 17 other countries. Blanchard also served as the U.S. Ambassador to Slovenia. Blanchard said that she is the only candidate in this race who has all three accomplishments.
Blanchard said that because she had witnessed so much “wasteful spending that the United States does abroad” she was asked to apply for the position of Administrator of USAID after Donald Trump was elected in 2016. Blanchard did not get that position but was appointed as the Ambassador to Slovenia by President Trump.
Blanchard said that, “When President Trump was not reelected I began getting phone calls” about returning to Alabama and running for office.
“I am very deliberate and calculating,” Blanchard said.
On the campaign trail for U.S. Senate, she began hearing from voters that wanted a new governor candidate and a new Senate candidate.
“Now that I am in this race, there are a lot of policies that this so-called governor has not stepped up to,” Blanchard said.
Blanchard said that two issues that she is concerned about are immigration and law and order. She cited Birmingham, Mobile, and Montgomery as three cities where violence is ranked among the most dangerous places in America for murder and mayhem.
“We need law and order,” Blanchard said. “We need a governor who steps up to the plate.”
Blanchard promised not just to lead the state as governor, but also to lead the Alabama Republican Party to make the state even redder. Blanchard promised to encourage Republican clubs in Alabama high schools and to more actively support college Republican clubs.
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Blanchard also promised to never appoint a Democrat for any vacant judgeship.
“Gov Ivey has appointed eight judgeships that are Democrats,” Blanchard said. “I am told that there were qualified Republicans willing to serve, but Gov. Ivey would not appoint them.”
Blanchard also said more needs to be done to improve education in Alabama.
“Florida went from 27 to number three,” Blanchard said. “They got rid of Common Core and they made school choice available.
When it comes to China, Blanchard said the U.S. needs to become less dependent on supplies. Blanchard claimed that electric cars make us dependent on the Chinese.
“You have to have lithium,” to make the electric car batteries Blanchard explained. “We are dependent on the energy source for the battery with China.”
Blanchard said that other major minerals in electric car batteries are minerals that are mined in Ukraine and it “Looks like they are going to be owned by Russia."
“I would love to bring in the partners we used to have,” Blanchard said. “Yes, they are difficult to work with because they have a lot of rules, but that is the EU.”
Blanchard stressed the importance of vocational education in schools.
“Welding students can walk out of high school and make $18 an hour,” Blanchard said citing an example where there is a need for skilled labor.
Blanchard promised that if elected she would cut taxes, including rolling back the gas tax and getting rid of the grocery tax in Alabama. She said that due to the Biden inflation many Alabamians are struggling to come up with the money to both fill up the gas tank and go to the store to buy groceries and that she experienced that herself back in the 1970s under President Jimmy Carter’s administration.
Lindy Blanchard, Lew Burdette, Stacy Lee George, Kay Ivey, Tim James, Donald Trent Jones, Dean Odle, Dave Thomas, and Dean Young are all running in the Republican primary for governor on May 24.
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