Congressional candidate Bill Hightower has accused his opponent, Jerry Carl, of photoshopping a “Never Trump” sticker on him in a 2016 photo to insinuate that he does not support President Donald Trump.
The two are running in the March 31 Republican primary runoff for Alabama’s 1st Congressional District.
Hightower is calling on Carl’s campaign to take down the new ads, which he calls “scurrilous” and “false.” Hightower has also asked for TV stations to stop showing the image which he claims is false.
“Jerry Carl is lying to voters,” Hightower said. “Throughout this campaign, I have worked to run a positive campaign. I’ve talked about my pro-life record, fighting to ban the sale of unborn baby body parts and authoring the resolution to hold Doug Jones accountable for his vote against the common-sense Pain Capable legislation in the United States Senate. I’ve talked about my work to defend religious liberties and protect Christian adoptions. And I’ve talked about my well-established support for President Trump and his agenda, including building the wall and reducing the tax burden on hard working Alabama families.”
Hightower insists that he has been a strong supporter of President Trump and even campaigned for candidate Trump in 2016.
“Jerry needed to manufacture a fake image by photoshopping a “Never Trump” sticker on me,” Hightower said. “Show me the original picture, Jerry, explain where that picture came from. You can’t though, because I never have and never would wear a “Never Trump” sticker. That’s just dishonest, deceptive. And when President Trump became our standard-bearer, I was proud to campaign in support of him and Mike Pence. In fact, I stumped in Alabama on a Trump-Pence bus tour that you can clearly see here,” continued Hightower.”
“I can’t explain why Jerry Carl has decided to start the run-off campaign with these lies,” Hightower said. “What I do know is that I am committed to running my campaign on the issues facing hard-working South Alabama families. I will talk about these important issues. But Jerry must stop with the lies, stop with the deceptions, and I call on Jerry Carl to take down his dishonest and desperate commercial. I always considered Jerry a friend before this race. Jerry has a choice to make: continue lying for sake of scoring cheap political points or start telling the truth so he can look himself in the mirror when this race is over.”
In the Republican primary on March 3, Jerry Carl received 38,359 votes (38.71 percent) to Bill Hightower’s 37,133 votes (37.47 percent), with the rest of the votes spread out among the other three candidates. Since neither Carl nor Hightower got 50 percent of the vote, there will be a Republican primary runoff on March 31.
The winner of the Republican primary runoff will face the winner of the Democratic primary runoff in the general election on November 3.
Kiani A. Gardner will face James Averhart in the Democratic primary runoff.
Incumbent Congressman Bradley Byrne, R-Montrose, was defeated in his bid for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate so this is a rare open seat in in Congress.
