When Republican voters go to the polls in Alabama's March 5 primary, they may be surprised to find nine candidates running for president. They may also be surprised that they are unfamiliar with some names.
Here are the nine candidates who qualified to run for President in the Alabama Republican primary:
Ryan L. Binkley
Doug Burgum
Chris Christie
Ron DeSantis
Nikki Haley
Vivek Ramaswamy
Tim Scott
David Stuckenberg
Donald J. Trump
One has dropped out already, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.). His name remains on the March 5 Alabama primary ballot at this time, though that could change.
Two of the candidates are little known.
Ryan L. Binkley and David Stuckenberg. Do you know who they are? Why, they are candidates for President of the United States in your March 5 Alabama Republican primary. They, and each of the others, paid a $20,000 qualifying fee to be put on the GOP primary ballot in Alabama.
According to Dr. Google:
Ryan L. Binkley is the founder and CEO of Generational Group of Richardson, Texas. It is a business consultancy and wealth advisory firm with 300 employees.
He is also the founder and lead Pastor of Create Church, a "multi-ethnic and multi-generational church."
Binkley's statements are more of a call to revival than a plan for specific government action. His campaign theme is "Believe."
He earned a B.A. in business administration at the University of Texas and an MBA from SMU.
He and his wife have five children. Their youngest was adopted from South Korea.
Binkley does not have a Wikipedia.com page, which even an amateur or teenager could write and post.
David J. Stuckenberg is the founder and chief operating officer of Genesis Systems, which has patent-pending inventions, including a device to generate fresh water from air.
He earned a Ph.D. from King's College after a Master's at George Washington University and a B.S. at Central Missouri.
He is a former advisor at the U.S. State Department and lectures to international groups.
A news release was sent from the Stuckenberg for President campaign on November 14 entitled, "Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas deserves to be Impeached." It was a multiple-issue critique of Mayorkas summarized by "he is un-American."
A motion to impeach Mayorkas was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives but failed to pass.
Stuckenberg and wife Shannon live in Tampa, Fla. with their five children. He is a Major and pilot in the Air Force reserves and has flown 900 sorties.
The campaign describes Stuckenberg as "…an executive and military strategist, entrepreneur, inventor, decorated veteran Air Force pilot, founder of Genesis Systems, an innovative company helping solve global water scarcity."
Neither Binkley nor Stuckenberg had any Alabama voters qualify to run for delegate to the Republican National Convention committed to them. The deadline for running for delegate passed on November 10.
The threshold for a Republican presidential candidate to receive delegate votes from Alabama is 20% of the statewide vote or 20% of the vote in one of the state's seven congressional districts. In the unlikely event that either Binkley or Stuckenberg reaches that threshold in the March 5 primary, the Republican State Executive Committee would appoint delegates for that candidate.
Neither Binkley nor Stuckenberg qualified for any of the first three televised debates of Republican presidential candidates. A fourth debate will be held at the University of Alabama on December 6. It appears that neither of these two will meet the stringent requirements of the number of donors and standing in the polls and will thus not be on the stage on December 6.
Will these two "dark-horse" candidates become better known in Alabama before the March 5 primary? No campaign activities inside Alabama are known at this time.
Jim Zeigler is a former Alabama Public Service Commissioner and State Auditor. You can reach him for comments at ZeiglerElderCare@yahoo.com.
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