WASHINGTON — About two dozen Democratic congressional hopefuls, led by Alabma’s 5th District Democratic nominee Andrew Sneed, recently gathered at the Capitol to push for reforms to rebuild Americans’ trust in Congress.
Sneed is helming a nationwide coalition of Democratic candidates, called Take BAC Congress, which supports five tenets of ethics reform.
The group is calling for congressional term limits, a ban on stock trading by members of Congress, a moratorium on lobbying, overturning Citizens United v. FEC, which allows political expenditures by corporations, and an enforceable code of ethics for the U.S. Supreme Court. The group wants to limit House members to serve six terms and senators to two terms.
Some members of the group, spanning more than 150 candidates across 40 states, rallied on the steps of the Capitol last week to elevate their pledge of government accountability.
“Our brand is damaged,” Sneed, a Huntsville small business owner, told Alabama Daily News. “In places like Alabama, people are reticent to vote for a Democrat, but it shouldn’t be that way, because our policies are better and they always have been. But they’re reticent because of the messaging.”
To regain Americans’ trust, Sneed said, Democrats need to show they’re taking collective action to make the federal government more accountable to the people, such as through their five proposed reforms.
“I think that our party’s first job, in addition to addressing the kitchen table issues that are crushing families in North Alabama and across the country, should be re-earning trust,” Sneed said.
He hopes his nationwide coalition can help make that happen by standing united before and after the election, should the candidates win their elections in November.
All of Alabama’s Democratic congressional challengers are part of Sneed’s coalition, including Clyde Jones running for the 1st District, Lee McInnis in the 3rd District race, Amanda Pusczek in the 4th District and Maurice Mercer running in the 6th District.
The state’s Democratic incumbents, Reps. Shomari Figures and Terri Sewell are not a part of the organization.
Sneed is in a tough fight against Republican Rep. Dale Strong in the North Alabama district. The Cook Political Report rates the race as Solid Republican with an R+15 partisan voting index. But Sneed said his campaign’s internal polling shows he has a chance of winning against the two-term incumbent as he campaigns on government reform and on helping make life more affordable for those in Alabama’s 5th District.
Strong told Alabama Daily News in a statement that he’s running on his “record of service” for North Alabama.
“Over the last year we have brought new jobs to Alabama with Space Command, secured millions of dollars for new roads and passed historic tax cuts for all Alabamians,” Strong said. “But the job isn’t finished. The high price of gas and diesel show that we need to be more energy independent as a nation and I will continue to work in Washington to increase our refining capacity and domestic oil production.”
If elected to Congress, Sneed said he plans to start a caucus focused on the government reform measures to ensure the changes the candidates are running on can actually be implemented if they get in office.
“If you say it together, in public, everybody knows where you stand,” Sneed told ADN “And then if you go against it, the hypocrisy is exposed.”
During the coalition’s visit to the nation’s capital last week, the candidates also participated in an inaugural Courage and Accountability Summit alongside Citizens’ Impeachment, a nonpartisan grassroots movement to impeach, convict, and remove officials who violate their oath of office and the American People’s Compact, an organization committed to advancing an agenda to solve everyday issues.