The Alabama State Board of Education voting on a resolution at its May 8 meeting in the Gordon Pearsons Building in Montgomery, Alabama. (Anna Barrett/Alabama Reflector)
Republican voters in north Alabama will pick between the chair of an Alabama Moms for Liberty chapter and a candidate running a low-profile campaign to represent them on the State Board of Education.
Voters in the district, which covers Limestone, Madison, DeKalb and Jackson counties, will have to choose between Emily Jones and William Matthews. According to the Alabama Secretary of State’s website, Jones had 20,354 (42.31%) votes and Matthews had 15,504 (32.23%) votes in official returns in the May 19th primary.
The winner of the runoff will face Democratic nominee Shatika Armstrong. The winner of the election will succeed incumbent Wayne Reynolds, who is not seeking re-election.
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Jones, who founded and chairs the Madison County chapter of Moms for Liberty, a conservative organization that campaigns against school curricula mentioning race, ethnicity and LGBTQ+ rights, said in an interview Monday that she’s focused on her priorities and encouraging voters in her district to go to the polls.
“Just getting out, talking to parents, talking to grandparents, talking to voters in general, and just making sure they’re aware of the election, that they know about my platform, what I stand for, and just trying to encourage everybody to get out and vote,” she said.
Attempts to reach Matthews were unsuccessful. Matthews does not have a website with the only information about the candidate being an endorsement from the Christian Coalition of Alabama.
Reynolds has criticized Williams’ lack of presence in several Facebook posts. He said in an interview Monday afternoon that “I stand by what I wrote with every word.”
Jones said Reynolds’ opposition to Matthews hasn’t changed her campaign.
“The focus of the campaign is really and truly talking to voters,” she said. “I’m a mom, I’ve got a child in public school, so I know what my issues are. I know my concerns are from a parent’s perspective, but my focus has been talking to other parents, getting their feedback, and hearing their concerns. Because it’s easy for me to say that we should be focused on x, y and z, but if I don’t know other parents are concerned, then I’m kind of working in a silo, so his involvement in all of it has really not changed my approach to anything.”
From Alabama Reflector Post Url: Visit
Author: Andrea Tinker