Four of the five qualified candidates for the Alabama House District 12 special election offered some insight into their policy priorities and motivations for seeking office during a forum hosted by the Cullman Area Chamber of Commerce on Thursday, June 26.

Three of the Republican candidates — Clint Hollingsworth, Dan McWhorter and Cindy Myrex — and the one Democratic candidate — Matthew Glover — attended the event. Republican candidate Heather Doyle was extended an invitation, but was not present.

During his introduction, Hollingsworth keyed in on his experience in local government and accomplishments during his time spent serving on the Cullman City Council as some of the qualifications he believed made him best suited for office

“I think if you look around, there’s been a lot of things I’ve been involved in that’s been great for the city and for Cullman County as well. The biggest thing, that’s nice for me, is all the hard work and time you’ve put in, is that you can actually see it. Whether it’s road projects or Highway 157 or bridge projects or things I’ve been involved in, that helps everyone’s quality of life,” Hollingsworth said.

Myrex focused on what she described as her deep connection with local residents and said she believed early access to mental health care was one of the most pressing issues for families today.

“We have some generational cycles that I feel very concerned about and very compelled to work for. I believe if we can start to work hard on mental health and can get some true mental health care in our educational systems and expand on our PreK programs, then we can get our kids in early, out of the home early and into good care early where they aren’t getting good care at home. Maybe we can start to grow them into good mental conditions and grow them on into career tech centers as they get older,” Myrex said.

McWhorter and Glover both discussed their proposals to ease the financial burden for everyday Alabamians. McWhorter said he would like to modify the state’s Homestead Exemption requirements to reduce property taxes for all property owners, while Glover said he believed eliminating taxes on groceries and health care items would create more financial stability for most families.

“One of our most pressing issues is the cost of living. I hear often about how difficult it is to afford groceries. I would like to propose cutting the grocery tax or better yet eliminating it all together. I feel this is  a necessary step forward in making life more affordable for everyone in District 12. We also need to lower taxes on essential family needs such as over the counter medication and vitamins,” Glover said. “We can and should do away with taxes on prescription eyeglasses, contact lenses and other medical necessities. These things may not seem like a lot, but when you add them all together its a huge saving for lower and middle income families that I feel it is something we can easily accomplish in the legislature.”

McWhorter noted that he hoped to eliminate state income taxes of overtime hours as well as introduce a stand alone lottery bill which he said would support tuition for students attending two-year technical schools and community colleges.

“The legislation I would like to see placed in front of the House doesn’t ever seem to come up. It’s going to take a lot of work and a constitutional amendment, but it gets you the tuition for your high school students to go to a two-year program,” McWhorter said. “I’m tired of seeing our lottery dollars going to Tennessee and Georgia.”

Each candidate also highlighted various infrastructure needs they would like to prioritize if elected. Myrex said she would like to prioritize the widening of Interstate 65 and to collaborate with municipal governments in order to address community specific needs.

“As we all know, if you try to maneuver around the city of Cullman lately, it is pretty congested. I think we have to work to address the traffic flow. Do I know the answer to that? I don’t, but what I want to do is sit down with all of you that do know these answers and collaborate with you to come up with answers to work on our infrastructure,” Myrex said.

Hollingsworth also noted the importance of working directly with local leaders — mentioning a recent discussion with the town of Dodge City about their struggles to install a traffic light along AL-Hwy. 69 — but also highlighted the need to focus on lesser discussed infrastructure needs such as rural broadband.

“What gets left out is our broadband. It is crucial that we have broadband throughout Cullman County,” Hollingsworth said. “There are so many things going on right now: trying to make sure children have high speed internet to do their homework, businesses that are located in this county need broadband and reliability is crucial. Those are things that don’t get talked about as much. Whenever you say infrastructure everyone thinks of roads, which are important, but it’s much more than that.”

Glover agreed with both Myrex and and Hollingsworth on their points about widening I-65 and expanding rural broadband coverage, but added what he considered a solution to extra costs placed on small communities due to quicker road deterioration caused by the state increasing load capacities for heavy vehicles.

“I think there should be some type of pay-to-play situation when it comes to that extra weight that’s being allowed to be carried on our roadways. I think it’s unfair to ask local communities to pick up the bill when it comes to that. I think a small fee on companies that are taking advantage of the now higher weight restrictions should help cover some of that extra cost,” Glover said.

McWhorter focused on addressing potential safety issues by maintaining local bridges and said he would like to bolster the county’s road improvement funds by amending the state’s gas tax distribution model from being based on population, to putting top priority on road mileage.

“Road improvements should be our infrastructure priority. Having limited funds from the gas tax reinforces my plank of changing the distribution from a population program to a road mileage program. That would give the County Commission the ability to prioritize where that money should go as they see fit,” McWhorter said.

A Republican primary is scheduled for Tuesday, July 15, and, if needed, a runoff election will be held Tuesday, Aug. 12.

Whichever candidate wins the Republican nomination will face Glover in the general election scheduled on Tuesday, Oct. 28.