Frontrunners for Alabama’s 1st Congressional District seat touted their Republican bona fides during a forum Thursday, but offered few specifics on how they would tackle the most pressing issues facing their potential constituents.
The Andalusia forum, hosted by WSFA, WTVY and WALA featured questions on the Iran war, affordability, health care and government shutdowns.
The tight race for Alabama’s only open congressional seat this year is shaping up to be a Republican battle between former U.S. Rep. Jerry Carl of Mobile and State Rep. Rhett Marques of Enterprise. Other candidates in the primary also spoke at the forum. They include James (Jimmy) Dees, Joshua McKee, John Mills, James Richardson and Austin Sidwell.
Rep. Barry Moore, R-Enterprise, who is running for U.S. Senate, currently holds the deep-red seat. The frontrunners both offered their full support of President Donald Trump, though he hasn’t endorsed in the race.
The economy
Affordability remains a top issue for Alabama voters, and moderators started by asking the candidates about their plans to address high prices.
Both the frontrunners praised Trump’s domestic efforts, while acknowledging that the high cost of living is still a real concern.
Marques focused his answer on addressing those concerns through Republicans’ tax cuts in Congress and the Alabama Legislature, where he’s served two terms.
“I’m very proud to say that President Trump, with the Working Family Tax Cuts, put more money in people’s pockets with tax cuts on overtime tips and other tax cuts,” Marques said. “And I did the same thing here in Alabama by cutting the grocery tax in half, removing sales tax on diapers and formula.”
The state representative emphasized his desire to enact more tax breaks if he’s elected and to support Trump’s push for the United States to become energy independent.
“That is what we need to do to drive down the cost of fuel,” Marques said, referring to boosting domestic production. “And we need to continue to have somebody up there that will fight alongside President Trump.”
In his answer, Carl honed in on the need to bring more jobs and companies to the state and 1st District.
”We’ve got to encourage these companies to move in,” Carl said. “We’ve done a good job of that in Mobile and Baldwin County.”
The former congressman also broadly mentioned the need to back farmers who are acutely feeling the economic pain.
“Our farm community is feeling the squeeze much, much harder than we are,” Carl said. “So we’ve got to focus on bringing the lifestyle up, putting more money back into the pocket, and getting a better business atmosphere than what we just came out of, and that’s going to take time.”
Iran war
The United States’ war against Iran has exacerbated economic woes, especially when it comes to gas prices, which have risen in Alabama since the recent strikes began on Feb. 28.
Carl and Marques made it clear that Trump’s actions in Iran have been justified and within his scope of power, despite the president not getting congressional approval before striking the Middle Eastern nation.
“So far, what the president has done is well within the limits of his office,” Carl said.
He added that he feels like the war is coming to a head and will ultimately lead to peace in the region. On Friday, Iran and the United States announced that the Strait of Hormuz is back open for commercial ships, while the U.S. naval blockade will remain to monitor Iranian ports.
“I feel like we’re at a point and we’re going to start seeing some positive results coming out, ” Carl said, adding that the country needs to continue backing the U.S. armed forces.
Similarly, Marques praised Trump’s military operations in Iran and said the country needs to ensure the removal of the “evil regime.”
“I think it will…come to fruition here shortly,” he said. “But we cannot have a regime that’s…giving money to Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis and causing us and our allies damage.”
Health care
With the expiration of the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced tax credits and rising health care costs, the candidates broadly laid out how they would tackle the issue.
Combatting fraud and helping independent pharmacies topped the list for Carl’s health care priorities.
“If I get back in Congress, I go back on Appropriations, and I go back on Natural Resources, I’ll have a chance to look into these books and start identifying where these abuses are,” Carl said, referring to the House committees he was on while serving in Congress from 2021-2024.
To support rural hospitals, the Mobile Republican pointed to reforming the wage index, a complicated formula used to determine Medicare reimbursement rates for hospitals based on regional labor costs. Alabama hospitals receive the lowest reimbursements in the continental United States.
While in Congress, Carl introduced legislation to boost the reimbursement rates of hospitals in the bottom quartile. But the bill did not advance. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, introduced a similar bill this year.
“Our rural hospitals in South Alabama were having to compete with Florida hospitals, Mississippi hospitals, New Orleans hospitals,” he said. “They couldn’t pay staff enough. So there was a staff shortage, just a domino effect of bad things. So I argued we needed to get the reimbursement rate up.”
Carl wants to re-up that push if he’s elected back to the seat.
On high health care costs, Marques praised Trump’s initiatives, such as on drug prices. He also railed against fraud and the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. He was vague about what he would implement to make health care more affordable.
“That is where cutting costs and making sure that people have more money in their pocket and continue cutting taxes to allow people to be able to afford their insurance,” Marques said.
The Enterprise Republican briefly mentioned reform around pharmacy benefit managers in his response. For rural hospitals, Marques touted the Rural Health Transformation Program, which sent Alabama more than $200 million. Republicans put that money into the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to offset Medicaid cuts.
Marques said the governor, Legislature and hospital leaders will ensure that money is spent “wisely” to focus on long-term solutions. He added that lawmakers need to find ways to help incentivize doctors to remain in Alabama to practice.
“A lot of those doctors that we’re educating, we’re sending out of the state,” he said. “We need to make sure that we have those doctors come back to the state, back to our rural communities, and hopefully those funds will help do that,” he said.
Moderators also asked the Republican candidates about their ability to work across the aisle and how they would help prevent government shutdowns, which have plagued current lawmakers.
Democrat Clyde W. Jones, Jr. is running unopposed in the Democratic primary.
The primary is May 19. The last day to register to vote is May 4.