The Elmore County Republican Party met for their first annual banquet on Tuesday at the Millbrook Civic Center. Congressman Bradley Byrne, R-Alabama, was the keynote speaker. Byrne has announced that he is giving up his House seat to run for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Sen. Doug Jones, D-Alabama.
“I come from Washington where everybody is completely crazy,” Byrne said.
“Are you watching these people? They think it is OK to be a socialist,” Byrne said of House Democrats. “Some of them are socialists. Some of them don’t believe in God. They don’t go to church on Sunday They don’t read their Bibles.”
“They think that money comes from government,” Byrne said. “Money comes from hard work and businesses creating goods and services, not government.”
“I grew up with parents that grew up in the Depression,” Byrne said. “They grew up when having three meals a day was a big deal. They grew up when having a job, any job, was a big deal.”
“Some of them are for implementing the Green New Deal and ending all of the energy produced by fossil fuels within 10 years,” Byrne said. “I had two of the deans of the engineering schools in Washington, and I asked them if we can we get off of carbon-based fuels within 10 years. One of them said, you will be cold in the winter time, you will be hot in the summer time, and you will walk everywhere, but yes, we can get off of carbon based fuels.”
Byrne credited the economic boom with Republicans deregulating the economy following the 2016 election.
“Tax reform gave more money to the people of this country,” Byrne said. “When you give more money back to people, the economy explodes.”
“They want federal judges to rewrite the constitution without going through the amendment process,” Byrne said of Democrats. They don’t want the Constitution to mean what it clearly means. The Second Amendment clearly means that you have the right to keep and bear arms, but they don’t want it to mean that.
“Life happens at the moment of conceptions,” Byrne said. “I thought that we can at least agree that you should not kill a child in the last trimester. Only five countries allow abortions after five months. This would have put us on par with the majority of the world; Democrats voted against it.”
“If we don’t stand up and fight, they will overwhelm us,” Byrne warned. “My problem is that I have a U.S. senator who does not represent my values. He said Alabama is ready for gun control. No, we are not. In Alabama, gun control means using both hands. He voted against the pain capable life bill.”
“I want a senator who represents me and you,” Byrne said. “We need every soldier we can put on the field ready to fight, and right now, Alabama is missing a soldier.”
“I am not the only one running for Senate,” Byrne said.
He also said the upcoming election is important “because it may be that the election in Alabama decodes who controls who controls the Senate for the next two years.”
“Let us pick our own nominee, and Alabama will give you a good senator,” Byrne said he told Republican leaders in Washington.
Elmore County Republican Party Chairman Bill Lewis said he was surprised by the youth of some of the Democratic candidates there last year and said the Elmore GOP needs to do a better job of outreach to youth voters.
Alabama Republican Party Chairman Terry Lathan praised the Elmore County Republican Party for its success and announced that the GOP won 74 percent of the vote there.
The Elmore County GOP funds college scholarships for worthy local students. The top-three students participated in an essay contest.
Elmore County Scholarship committee chair Karen Stewart announced that Jessica White won first place in the essay contest.
Alabama Republican Party Chairman Terry Lathan congratulated the students on their achievements and added, “Don’t forget your values. There are some core values that got you where you are.”
“Thank you, Elmore County for highlighting some of the best of your county,” Lathan said. “And thank you for being such good Republicans.”
