Congressional candidate Joshua McKee, of Robertsdale, is called a political newcomer, but if you ask him, he has been in the political realm for quite some time.
The decorated military veteran, a Bronze Star recipient and former Green Beret, endured multiple combat deployments and survived traumatic brain injury (TBI).
McKee says he has handled political activity between the United States and other countries from the Pentagon. As a contractor, he has served as a project manager to deploy an intelligence database for the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA). With his extensive experience, McKee believes he can continue to fight for the country from Washington.
As a global strategist for General Motors, McKee said he gained experience in the business arena.
After living and traveling all over, McKee said his family chose Alabama.
“I've been all over the world. I could live anywhere I want,” McKee said. “And what I notice about here is you have the beautiful Gulf Coast, which I absolutely love, you have the rural horse area. But what you get with that is the most genuine people I have ever met in any stretch of the world.”
“I've been all over the world,” he said. “This doesn't exist anywhere else.”
That rural life also offers challenges McKee wants to tackle. He feels Alabama is often forgotten.
“I've been forgotten,” he said. “I know what it feels like and I was okay that someone forgot me but when I saw it happening to the people of Alabama, and I saw the lack of investment, the lack of Washington, D.C. caring about us, I had enough. I'm not going to stand by and let our own government cripple us from within and hurt these wonderful people. I'm not going to stand for it any longer, and as a Green Beret and all the countries I've been to and all the oppressed people that I have fought to get out of oppression, I will not let our government oppress Alabama.”
McKee said the decision to run for office came after he suffered from a brain tumor, leading to surgery and the loss of his voice. Eventually, his speech improved, but he said he never forgot the lack of care he received from the VA. He decided to run for office soon after getting his voice back.
“I said, ‘I can't stand this anymore. I got my voice back for a reason, and I'm going to go use it and I'm going to stand up for the people of Alabama,” he said.
As a leader, McKee said he has always led with his heart. That’s what he wants to do in Congress.
“I'll put myself in harm's way any second of any day for any person out there, and that includes every person of Alabama and District 1,” McKee said. “Our next congressman needs to have an America First, Alabama First, conservative agenda.”
If elected, McKee said his priorities would be small businesses, veteran care and investing in people.
“You can't have anything successful if you don't invest back into it,” he said. “Trump gets that. I understand that. I understand that in order for Alabama to continue to be successful and continue to thrive and push forward even further than they've ever imagined, we need to have someone that has the values to understand that we are going to push back into our people.”
McKee said calling him a political newcomer is not entirely accurate.
“I don't take it offensively. I do not take it offensively,” he said. “I take it as you're underestimating me.”
“They don't know that I've been in politics, but I've been in it from the military side and the corporate side,” McKee added. “Remember, a lot of corporations invest heavily through lobbyists into our government, which dictates a lot of the direction. That's a problem. We don't need to have corporations running America through politics. We need to have American people running America through politics. That's the problem.”
Former U.S. Rep. Jerry Carl (R-Mobile) and State Rep. Rhett Marques (R-Enterprise) have already announced they’re also seeking the Republican nomination.
U.S. Rep. Barry Moore (R-Enterprise) is giving up the seat to run for U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Auburn) seat.
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