By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
Monday, July 17, 2017, Sam McLure announced that will formally announce his candidacy for Alabama Attorney General at a press conference on July 20, 2017, on the steps of the Attorney General building, facing the Capitol.
McLure said, “Oddly enough, I decided to get into the legal field because I wanted to be a missionary. My wife and I felt called to be salt and light in a part of the world where the resources of the Church are less prominent,” McLure explained. “So we thought having a law degree would be good avenue for tent-making.”
While still in law school in Montgomery, Sam and Mary Beth McLure adopted their oldest son from the Hungarian foster-care system.
McLure said, “That really changed the trajectory of our family. We started dreaming of a law firm that could zealously advocate for abused, neglected, and orphaned children. From day one as a practicing attorney, I’ve focused on bringing the issue of orphan care into the limelight and helping families through adoption and foster care.”
McLure said, “As a foster parent myself, I know that foster children in our State often get trapped in a crazy-dark cycle. Alabama has over 4,500 foster children and almost 500 age-out of the system every year with no place to call home. That’s a problem. Every DHR attorney is an Assistant Attorney General. It’s paramount that our next Attorney General put his finger on that button and keep pushing it. DHR must be adequately staffed with excellent attorneys to zealously advocate for these abused and neglected children.”
McLure is strongly Pro-Life, having founded and served with ministries such as Personhood Alabama, Proposal 16, and Sav-a-Life.
McLure said, “I cut my teeth in the Pro-Life movement in Montgomery. A friend introduced me to sidewalk counseling at Montgomery’s abortion mill,” said McLure. “It’s just a few blocks from the Governor’s mansion. You can’t un-see what you see there.”
McLure has also worked extensively to promote Pro-Life, traditional marriage, and foster care reform bills.
McLure said, “Over sixteen children lose their life every day in Alabama because of abortion. That’s terrible … an unfathomable injustice … and the effect on many parents is devastating. Currently, Alabama is giving quarter to a few wolves-in-sheep’s clothing that profit from encouraging parents to abort their children. That has to stop. Alabama needs an Attorney General who will prosecute these abortionists to the fullest extent of the law. Period.”
Criminal justice reform is also a topic near-and-dear to McLure’s heart. “I entered the criminal justice system as a teenager, on a string of petty crime and drug abuse. If I hadn’t had fourteen safety nets, I would have been totally lost. We have a criminal justice system that doesn’t give the poor second chances like it does the upper-middle class. In Alabama, that usually means minorities are getting the short end of the stick. That’s got to stop.”
McLure said that his decision to enter the Attorney General race was partly fueled by Luther Strange accepting Bentley’s appointment to US Senate. “When Luther Strange took the appointment to US Senate … from the Governor he was supposed to be investigating … it was like watching a train-wreck happen in slow-motion. The only thing more shocking was the deafening silence from the political establishment. It’s crystal clear that Luther Strange chose self-promotion over his duty to the people of Alabama. When someone acts with such cavalier disregard for ethical conduct … when someone does that in broad daylight, it screams out for zealous investigation into what happened behind closed doors.”
McLure said, “Luther Strange, Mike Hubbard, Oliver Robinson … in many ways these are just fruit from a poisonous tree. The roots of this corruption lead to a few politico-power brokers who bribe and manipulate the mechanism of government for their own greedy ends … crushing the rights and freedoms of the citizens of Alabama. Alabama stands at a crossroads where it will either wash away the filth of corruption, or continue to wallow in the mire.”
He and his wife, Mary Beth, live in the Birmingham-metro area with their three children, McLure is the Founder of The Adoption Law Firm, a law firm dedicated to zealously advocating for orphaned children in need of loving stable families. He has also authored a book entitled, ‘The End of Orphan Care’.
McLure concluded, “We have to hold the political elites just as accountable as folks who break into homes and rob widows … we have to find a way out of this criminal-justice-system fiasco … we have to protect abused, neglected, and at-risk children like our own lives depend on it. Alabama needs an Attorney General who will Speak for the Weak.”
McLure has published columns for The Alabama Political Reporter.
Former US Attorney Alice Martin, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, and President Trump’s Alabaman campaign manager, Chess Bedsole, have already announced that they are also running in the Alabama Attorney General’s race.
