MONTGOMERY — With less than three weeks until the primary election on March 5, five Republican candidates in the newly created congressional district 2 discussed immigration, the national debt and their backgrounds at a forum in Montgomery hosted by the Montgomery County Republican Party and the Capital City Young Republicans on Thursday night.
The race is being watched across the nation as the contest that could decide which party controls the House in 2025.
Former State Sen. Dick Brewbaker (R-Montgomery) said in his speech, "The security of this nation has never been more in jeopardy than it is right now."
"My son is an active duty member of the 75th Ranger Regiment. He's at Fort Benning. He's proud of being a soldier, but it really bothers me that we have 400,000 illegals coming in a month. The FBI admits to every month dozens of red-flag people linked to terrorism entering the United States and we don't have any idea where they are. They're just in this country. It makes us less secure. 150 Americans die a day from fentanyl poisoning. One thing they all have in common: all these illegal immigrants, all these illegal drugs, all this human trafficking…if our government wanted it stopped, it would be stopped. We've had secure borders in the past, we just don't have one now. We need to build the wall, aggressively control the border and when people come in this country they need to be sent home. We don't need to pass any new laws. The President of the United States has all the authority of the chief executive and commander-in-chief of the military that he needs to secure our border. The Democratic Party just doesn't want to secure it," Brewbaker said.
Caroleene Dobson, a Montgomery attorney and native of rural Monroe County in the district, said, "We are being invaded right now as I speak."
"We have illegals flooding across the border and not even addressing the crime and the drugs and the terrorist cells that are coming across the border…just the sheer number of non-taxpayers that are depending on our social services is going to cause our country to collapse. We have got to close the border, build the wall, send everyone home, and enforce the stay-in-Mexico policy," Dobson told attendees.
State Sen. Greg Albritton (R-Atmore), General Fund chairman, contrasted the federal government's $34 trillion national debt against the state of Alabama paying off its debt to the Alabama Trust Fund last year.
"Alabama is paying its debts off. We're getting ourselves out of debt while the country continues to move in debt. We're spending the monies we have and saving while the country continues to spend and print and borrow. They're in the wrong direction, we're in the right direction. They're in the wrong direction. What I want to do is come in and take what we have learned and what I do and take it to Washington (D.C.) and change the system," Albritton told attendees.
Hampton Harris, an attorney and business owner, said veterans and families in the district were feeling the effects of illegal immigration.
"Not only do we need to protect our nation from foreign adversaries but we also need to protect our homeland right here at home. We're being invaded at our southern border where millions upon millions of immigrants are crossing over and spreading across our nation, making every state a border state. We need to close our border, build the wall, deport those who enter illegally and keep America first," Harris said.
Belinda Thomas, the first black woman elected to the Newton City Council, said she wasn't running for the seat because she was black but because she can "get the job done."
Thomas spoke out against court-ordered redistricting plans that split up the Wiregrass to meet racial demographic totals in certain districts at a reapportionment hearing in July.
"I spoke out against the redistricting, but they won. I want to save the House just like I want to save our borders," Thomas said on Thursday.
If no candidate receives over 50% of the vote in the March 5 primary, there will be a runoff between the top two vote-getters on April 16.
There are also 11 Democrat candidates for the second congressional district running in the separate Democrat primary, also on March 5. The two winners of the party primaries will face off in the November 5 general election in the swing district.
The counties in the new second congressional district are Washington, southern Clarke, Monroe, Conecuh, Butler, Crenshaw, Pike, Montgomery, Bullock, Macon, Russell, Barbour and parts of Mobile; most of the city of Mobile, most black precincts, and most of north Mobile County.
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