Preface: This letter is specific to my home district’s congressional primary race. Due to the Federal court’s affirmation of the redistricting maps for Alabama the primary for several of Alabama’s districts was moved to 11 August. I offer the following to all as an example of things each of you should consider and things you can do yourself to make a difference. The leadership of this country is in OUR hands. The people we elect WORK FOR US. We do not work for them. Perhaps if more people would look at their representatives at all levels of government as their hired hands we might see some better behavior from them.

28 July 2026

Dear Friends and Patriots,

For various reasons I’ve put off any comment on the Alabama District 1 Congressional race until now. The time has come to speak my peace.

I’ll recount a few things Jerry Carl said in my presence after his election to Congress in 2022 that gave me pause:

• People will tell you that “compromise” is a bad word, but if we aren’t willing to compromise, nothing gets done.

• I have lunch with my Democrat colleges so I can hear their point of view.

• Democrats are not bad people. Many of them want the same things we do; they just go about it in different ways.

• I’m a work-horse, not a show horse.

I once asked Congressman Carl how he could knowingly vote on those multi-thousand page omnibus bills Nancy Pelosi often released two days before their first floor vote. His explanation was, “There are several members who get all their staffs together, break the bills into parts and assign them to staff people to read and synopsize them in writing. Then the members get together and walk through all the synopses and decide on our votes.”

When asked by a constituent why certain legislation hadn’t made it out of committee, Congressman Carl’s answer began with, “You just don’t understand … “

When asked in a candidate forum in 2022 why he wasn’t a member of the Congressional Freedom Caucus, Congressman Carl responded with, “I’m not going to join any group that’s going to tell me how to vote.”

In the debate held in Daphne, AL against Barry Moore in 2024 both candidates were invited to say “nice” things about each other. Congressman Moore’s comments were essentially, “I like Jerry. Everyone likes Jerry. No one says anything bad about the guy.” Congressman Carl’s comments were essentially, “I don’t know much about Barry Moore. I hear he has a great condo in D.C. and he drives a really cool Porche.” (Barry Moore didn’t live in a condo in DC and has never owned a Porche)

In his current campaign Mr. Carl has told people, “I get it. I know I made mistakes. I’ve learned from them and will be a better Congressman next time.”

I’ve held fire until now, mostly because I’m surrounded by friends with “Jerry Carl For Congress” signs in their yards. I have friends actively working on his campaign. But, when I was approached to join them, my mind went to the things I’d heard Congressman Carl say, and then … there was the one thing I will never be able to put out of my mind.

Remember the mRNA vaccines? Remember the Covid vaxx mandates and all the hoorah surrounding them? Of course you do. It was in the very middle of the Covid terror that one member of Congress put forth a bill to create a National Vaccine Registry, where everyone’s vaccination status would be maintained. It would be an official, definitive database that would have the names, addresses, sex, age, and phone numbers of everyone in the country who’d taken their Covid vaxx shots. It amazed me that the bill got out of committee and went to a floor vote. It was a bill to create a law that was obviously a huge invasion of the rights of privacy of everyday citizens – how could that ever be seriously considered? And yet … it was. It went to the floor for a vote, and Congressman Jerry Carl raised his hand and voted, “Aye!” Even though that bill failed to pass, all my friends were livid. All my friends who considered Jerry Carl a friend were livid. They had seen their friend and Congressman vote for a law that would have facilitated a totalitarian enforcement of the Covid mandates. Republicans and Tea Party members in Lower Alabama were appalled. How could anyone who claimed to be a conservative or a Constitutionalist vote for something as monstrous as that bill. Yet, Jerry Carl did. A loud clanging sound went off in my head that day, and the noise is still there, every time I see him or hear his name.

I’d like to explain a bit more about my point of view and what I think of some things Jerry Carl has said.

He’s definitely not a “show horse,” but if he’s a “work horse,” no one in this district can prove it. The thing he points to most often is answering Veteran constituent mail and helping them with their concerns. Everyone in Congress who understands the power of veteran’s groups does the very same thing. Besides, almost all correspondence is dealt with by staff people, not by the members themselves. Most members don’t even sign the letters of response. That AutoPen thing … that’s not just something Joe Biden used. Many people in Congress have one or more signature stamps that their staff uses to affix their “signature” to letters. Most modern word processing programs have a signature capability as well. How much did Jerry Carl work? I have zero idea. He was so low-key that I doubt anyone who wasn’t part of his staff has any clue.

When Congressman Carl mentioned “compromise” there were no qualifications in the statement. No even “… but, I’ll never compromise on a Constitutional or Christian principle.” In my own private universe, I rarely find the need to compromise. Besides, I’ve watched Democrats very closely for 50 years. “Compromise” to a Democrat means, “I pretend to give up something I need if you give up something you need.” Except, they never utter “pretend” aloud. To a Democrat, compromise is a one-way thing. How do you think this country got to the place it is? 90 years of Republicans, steadily compromising away all that had formerly made America great – that’s how. Think of compromise as a bite, and America as an elephant. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. And, that’s precisely how the Democrats have nearly destroyed us as a nation.

Congressman Carl said he broke bread with Democrats to find out their point of view. Pardon me, but I take them at their word. If their point of view in a restaurant differs from their public utterances, then they are fundamentally dishonest and I don’t need their “real” points of view. Dining with the enemy is a good thing to do in a strategic sense, but most of the time the opposition is telling you what they want you to hear. In other words – they’re just trying to con you. They’re either trying to feed you a lie or to suck something out of you. I’ve dealt with such things many times in the corporate world.

If, today, Mr. Carl thinks Democrats want the same things “we” do, I have to wonder what it is that he wants. I think I understand the Democrats in Congress. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to state that they’ve sold their souls and are not a bit interested in seeing this country run according to the Constitution. Almost all of them have violated their oaths of office, and done so publicly. “We” don’t want any part of that.

I was truly astounded that Congressman Carl would think the process used to decompose multi-thousand page bills before a floor vote was in any way sensible. First off – most staffers are professional Congressional employees who are allocated to the various offices as the seats flip. They aren’t supposed to be partisan, though most of them definitely are (just as we all are). The professional part is where they change from supporting a Democrat one term to supporting a Republican the next. That doesn’t change their personal belief systems and politics, but it definitely will affect how they read and interpret pending legislation. It definitely will affect any synopsis they may create from the legislation they read. When I heard how they decomposed those bills I felt a shudder run up my spine. My take – the Members of Congress have no clue. They’re putting the future of the country in the hands of mostly young, super-ambitious, unelected people and expecting them to render serious and accurate judgments that help to develop recommendations that members follow. It makes me wonder… is that how Congressman Carl made the serious error of voting for a Federal Vaccine Registry?

ANY politician who tells a constituent, “… you just don’t understand…” is rendering a great insult to a voter. There’s never an excuse for that. When a constituent raises a concern, they deserve to be heard and they also deserve an honest response. They don’t deserve to have their intelligence insulted.

No one tells a member of Congress how to vote. At least, not any honest member. As for how the Freedom Caucus works, it also can’t possibly tell its members how to vote. They study the legislation, share points of view, and opinionate, but they don’t tell anyone how to vote. Members of the Freedom Caucus are members BECAUSE they’re real conservatives and Constitutionalists. They help each other to understand the ins and outs of pending legislation and how it conflicts with their own values. Based just on Congressman Carl’s voting record, I suspect he wouldn’t have fit well within the Freedom Caucus. Then, again, if he’d joined, it’s almost certain his voting record would have been more to my liking.

Let me say one final thing about Jerry Carl. I like Jerry, too. I’ve always liked him. He’s a guy who’s hard not to like, just as Barry Moore said. But I don’t cast my votes for people because I like them. I cast them for the people who might best represent my own points of view. Jerry Carl has stated he’s learned his lesson and wants another chance. I’m sorry, but he had his chance, and he failed to make the most of it. I had hoped the lesson he learned was that he was not the best person to represent my district. I have known all along that I cannot support his campaign.

I will vote for Austin Sidwell to be my next Congressman. I hope he wins. If he does, I also hope he saves this letter, because… I’m out here, watching, reading, listening, and – occasionally – writing down my thoughts.

In Liberty,

Steve