Jerry Carl Makes His Case for Alabama's First Congressional District

On this episode of WFUZ-TV: The People's Voice, hosts Blair Castro and Thomas Jenkins sit down with Jerry Carl, candidate for Alabama's First Congressional District, for an in-depth conversation ahead of the August 11 Special Republican Primary.

Following Alabama's congressional redistricting, Jerry Carl explains why he believes he is the right choice to once again represent South Alabama in Congress. He reflects on his humble upbringing, the values that shaped him, and why he argues that experience matters when it comes to delivering results in Washington.

The conversation explores the issues driving this campaign, including infrastructure, price gouging, economic concerns, and the future of Alabama's First Congressional District. Jerry also discusses his recent endorsement from President Donald Trump, along with support from numerous conservative organizations, elected officials, and public figures, and why he believes that support reflects his record and vision for the district.

We also discuss the unique challenges of a special election, where turnout can ultimately decide the outcome. Jerry shares his belief that campaigns are most successful when they give voters someone to vote for, rather than simply someone to vote against, and explains why he believes offering a positive vision is the key to earning the public's trust and support.

Let's hear former U.S. Representative Jerry Carl out as he makes his case, lays it all on the table, and works to earn your vote!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to WFEZ TV, the People's Voice Podcast. I'm Blair Castro here with Thomas Jenkins. And today we have the one and only Jerry Carl with us today. I bet you guys didn't never think this was going to happen, but here he is in the studio with us in Gulf Shores. Mr. Carl, thank you so much for coming.

SPEAKER_02 0:16

My pleasure. I told you we would do this. I just didn't know when we'd get around to it. Now's a great time.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

It is. Well, where we're filming right now, we have just a short time. Again, I know we've all kind of got election fatigue, but there is still a congressional primary on August 11th, thanks to the redistricting. So tell us a little bit about, number one, how that came to be and the new district, just for a brief reminder of people that might not know, and then a little about your background and experience.

SPEAKER_02 0:40

Well, the district itself is basically the same district it was back three years ago before it got uh redrawn uh in ACP and some lawsuits got it redrawn to the state. Uh and it uh it got redrawn, obviously, in the new district uh all the way out to uh Dothan, long, long district all the way across the wire grass. We fought it. We've fought it for three years. The Supreme Court finally ruled that the state's responsibility to draw the district, not the responsibility of the uh uh uh federal government, and also that the uh people have got a right to be heard, not a particular race. Uh, race was an issue in that that lawsuit. So uh we're counted as people now, not as a race, which I think is very important. We work most of our life to get away from racial issues, make it more of a social or personal or you know, group uh issues in our communities, but yet the the government wants to split us apart and make it a racial issue. It just always fascinates me why in the world we allow that, but it does happen. So we're back to back to the original district. The district runs Mobile County, Balling County, Scambia County, and and Covington County, which was added to it. So we're we're excited to be back. Uh my journey starts uh very simple. I've been in business for myself for the past 40 plus years, uh primarily home health care and equipment uh and pharmacies. Uh also did a little bit of real estate development, even owned a bed and breakfast at one point in my life. Uh, if you ever want to get even with somebody, talk them into having a bed and breakfast. I'm not a uh I'm not a very good counselor when it comes to social issues, but uh got involved in politics uh mainly because of my son, deployed into Afghanistan. I looked to see what I had done in my life to equal what this 19-year-old was doing at that time. I couldn't come up with anything I had ever done, so I started searching, searching community, searching for ideas of what I could do to give back. And local government was my way of giving back. I got involved in local government and I certainly enjoyed it. I loved my uh eight years as a county commissioner. Um this seat opened up uh this district won when uh Bradley Byrne was a congressman at the time, and and he chose to run for U.S. Senate also. And uh, of course I ran for it and won it. Served two tours, excuse me, two tours, listen at me. I served two terms in in uh Congress and hopefully I get to go back to my third.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

So, what made you want to, I guess, get back into that job after kind of being out of it for a while?

SPEAKER_02 3:32

You know, I love the job itself, as crazy as that sounds, and everybody thinks I'm a little messed up for uh thinking this way, but you know, someone's got to do it. I understand that now I've got four years experience. Uh I understand the process of how it works. I love constituents, I love people, uh, I love their problems, I love to be able to fix it. It's all the other things of D.C. that you have to tolerate. Uh there's a lot of negative that goes along with any job, and D.C. certainly is no different than life itself. You have to tolerate some of the negative portions of it, but I get to represent some pretty awesome people here in District 1. So for me to go to D.C. and represent them and be their voice is quite a privilege.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

What's the biggest challenge that you've faced and how you've faced it makes you separate from your competitioner?

SPEAKER_02 4:27

Well, I I've already done it. I you know, I've been uh been on preparations, I've been on armed services, and I've been in natural resources. Again, I understand the process, and that's not that's not some dark political statement. The process itself is you know how a bill is actually born, how a concept is born for in your district, how you take that concept back to Congress, how you get it put into a committee, a committee to a bill, a bill back to a committee, uh, and then back on the floor for an actual vote. I understand that process now. And that's important. And you don't learn that kind of stuff overnight. So, you know, I I I like that portion of it. And it's hard though. It's a it's an exhausting job. Uh, you know, up there we walk somewhere between four to six miles a day, underground primarily. Uh they have tunnels that take us all around, uh or take we take ourselves around, move around. So when you go to DC and you don't see a lot of people moving around, it's like an anthill. They're all underground moving. So uh it's a pretty cool place.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

Um so I didn't realize you only served two terms, you were saying. So people said, you know, Jerry Carl's a career politician, he's been there forever. You've really only been there two terms. What would you say to people? I mean, how do you feel about term limits and people that have been there for, you know, 30, 40 years?

SPEAKER_02 5:47

Yeah, well, 30, 40 years is too long to be in in any any position that period. Uh, you know, I think I think we should do term limits. I think term limits for Senate should be two terms, which is a total of 12 years. I think it should be 12 years for the House members, too. 12 and 12. Sounds fair to me. Uh the average congressman now only stays six and a half years. So that will surprise most people. It the average congressman does not last long. It is a it's a high pressure, very burnt out job. Uh most will only stay two years and figure out nothing like they anticipated and get out. Senate is much much different. Uh their their speed and how they move and how they deal with things are so much different than than the House itself. The House itself is just so fast moving. Uh, but I term limits, of course. Now getting them passed. Uh we get a term limit bill brought up uh probably once a month in in Congress, and it never makes it to the floor.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

About how long does it take to get your feet wet and really feel confident in knowing what you're doing in that office?

SPEAKER_02 6:58

For me, the first two years was all experimental. Now it was during the COVID phase, granted, and we were all in a haze, and uh, you know, I'd taken the COVID shots, and I still don't feel normal after the COVID shots. Uh that's that's another conversation for another day, if you want to have it. But but the first two years was was tough. The second two years, I really got my feet up under me. I understood the appropriation process. They had moved me from armed services over to appropriations, so I understood how to how to get uh uh to read that documentation coming through. The important thing about appropriations is is not what he can spend on you, is how much money he can save you. So when those appropriation package comes in and you start reading what the money's going for, and I use this as an example because it's a true example, and you see $16 million for a dance studio in Guatemala, or Honduras, I think it's Guatemala though, and you ask questions, what's this $16 million going to Guatemala for? Well, it's for an LGBTQ dance studio. And my question is, is why are we spending $16 million on that dance studio in Guatemala and not in America? Not on our troops, not on our people. So in appropriations, it's important to have people that can identify that type of stuff and start stripping it out. And when you start stripping it out, you get the people on the other side of the aisle, they start screaming. And it it it that's when it becomes a dog and cat fight.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

Yeah, we were talking about the Save Act yesterday. We were having some lunch and we were wondering if there was any kind of pork that was inserted into the Save Act that was keeping it from moving through.

SPEAKER_02 8:36

I haven't read the Save Act. I mean, uh, the concept, I can't understand why anybody would be against it. I mean, we identify ourselves, obviously somebody my age doesn't, but you know, you want to buy a pack of cigarettes or an alcohol or you know, and and you look less than 40 years old, they're gonna card you. I mean, it's just you go to vote. Should be the same way. I don't understand where the problem is with the Save Act. I have heard no one say anything about anything that has been filled into that. Uh uh I may be wrong, but I haven't heard any conversation about that.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

Yeah, we were wondering because it seems like an easy win that would pass, and we were thinking, oh, maybe something's like shoved in there that we don't know, but uh same thing. I probably should read it.

SPEAKER_02 9:20

Well, I understand there's three or four of the the uh senators that just don't like Donald Trump. And there's a lot of people we have to work with that we don't like, but to to shut a whole system down or to turn you back on a country, I think that's that's pretty selfish.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

So speaking of Trump, just yesterday or the day before, you got the coveted Trump endorsement, which everybody wants. You know, he's I don't think he's endorsed somebody that's lost yet. So that's very uh your record going right now. How did that make you feel? Did how what happened when you got that call?

SPEAKER_02 9:49

Well, I was hoping it was gonna be a phone call, but I didn't get a phone call. I've been endorsed by him twice so far. And uh both times I I did get a phone call and had a strong conversation with him. He obviously released several endorsements yesterday, and mine was one of them. Uh I actually found out Katie Britt sent me a note of all people, you know, and she she wasn't too busy on the floor or something, I guess, at the moment. But she sent it to me congratulating me. So that's how I actually found out about it, which was exciting. But I'm excited to have it. I mean, it's quite an honor. I mean, it's uh if you we were back in the Boy Scouts, it'd be quite a merit badge, I guess. Uh the president has always treated me with respect. He's uh I've always worked with him, uh, even when he wasn't in office, and we we work well together. So I'm excited to get back up there uh and and work with him uh to get uh things like the SAVE Act, some of this some of his agenda pushed across the line. We've got we'll have two years when I get up there, and we're gonna we're gonna do our best to get it done.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

What is it like working up there in the current political atmosphere, all the turbulence just within the Republican Party itself, much less the Democrats versus Trump? Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_02 10:59

Well, the Democrat Party and the Republican Party are definitely different in the mindset. The Democrat Party, you know if you get out of line, they're gonna strip me like, for example, I'm on preparations. You you know that if if I and the Democrat Party get out of line, they're gonna take me off the preparations and put me on some committee that no one wants. You know it's gonna happen if I if you don't walk a line. The Republican Party is more free thinkers. Uh there, I mean, we we argue, we squabble behind closed doors, some of the conversations and and screaming that goes on needs to happen. You know, it it's it's like siblings or rivalry among themselves. And when we come out on the floor, we need to be as one. So, you know, that's the biggest difference between the Republicans and Democrats. I never got to serve under a Republican president. I did serve under Biden, which it was a challenge because I understood, I'll never forget the the the first um uh the first time that I got around Biden, and I was just it was shocking. I mean, he was like a walking ghost. I mean, he was tail white, skinny, uh just most unhealthy looking man. I was just it it so every day I got up in fear of what next was gonna happen. We all knew he was not running the office. We knew you know his staff was, and who his staff was, uh, you know, the pretty liberal, pretty liberal folk. So uh now I get to serve under Republican president. I hope we can play well together as a Republican Party. Uh you've always got one or two loose ends, that's just nature. Uh, but it's our job, and I'm one of those people, I was actually on the whip team. And the whip team is very simple. When we have a vote, we know it's gonna be a strong vote or a challenged vote. I have a half a dozen people I go and sit with and ask them, I say, Well, how do you feel about this vote? You're against it, and I mark down you're against it. I do my six, take it back, then we start focusing on that one vote that did not did not like what's coming out. We find out what he didn't like about it, we find out what he does like about it. We can actually go back from the conversation with him if we feel like it, and actually change it a little bit to fit what he's looking for. You know, because his constituents are worried about one little piece of it. So we want to try to make it as comfortable for him as we possibly can. We need his vote. So uh being on the WIP committee, you you learn how to communicate because you've got to be a good listener. You gotta be able to listen to what most of the time what they're not telling you.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

So, what are some things outside of your experience, like your character traits, uh the things that make you you? Because you're a very nice person. You're very um you have a good disposition, I think. And we we've met with a lot of politicians, and some people are you know very full of themselves and very like not down-to-earth. I would say that you were not that. You're definitely a down-to-earth kind of guy. And um what are those qualities that you have that you think make you the best choice for this job?

SPEAKER_02 13:58

I don't know if it's qualities or not. I mean, I I've always tried to be humble. Uh I've had I, you know, I've I I had uh some humble uh roots. Um, you know, my my probably not the strongest family in the world. Certainly don't have the education that most people think that I have. But you know, I've always been humble and very, very strong in my faith. And and looking at uh at the world, I try to find goodness in everything. Yeah, always looking for something good, something positive. Uh and and you know, pushing through it. And there's evil out there. We all know that. Identifying that and and dealing with it's a a different scenario, but but uh you know, I think it's a good trait when you try to find goodness in people, and it's a great place to start.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

So I wanted to ask about some of your endorsements. I know you have quite a few. Um, what are some of the ones you're most proud of? Remind people some of the endorsements that you have.

SPEAKER_02 14:59

So Donald Trump obviously was a huge one. Uh that I mean that one goes without a doubt. It it's top top shelf. Uh, but I, you know, yesterday we got so many endorsements, and we got another one today uh that that are huge. I mean, we just state endorsements from state organizations. Uh, you know, we got from convenience store uh group. I mean, we've got we're we're we're we're lining up several that we can't talk about today. Uh, but yesterday they piled on. Uh we got uh Speaker Johnson, uh Mike, very good friend of mine. Speaker Johnson endorsed us. I think they were all waiting for Trump to kind of pull the plug on the dam. Uh Emory, uh, we've got uh we've got four out of Congress, um, out of leadership. I mean, we're we just stacked them up yesterday. Katie Britt endorsed us yesterday. Uh she had uh agreed three weeks ago to support us. Uh, had a good strong conversation with Katie, and uh it was a good conversation, very positive. And uh she endorsed us yesterday, which I found that to be very humbling too.

SPEAKER_00 16:02

And Alpha.

SPEAKER_02 16:04

Oh, gosh, don't forget Alpha. My gosh, there's a lion in the room right there. I don't know where I'm at. Thank you. I hope Alpha doesn't see this. I didn't forget you.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

They've had a lot of wins. Um, I think they've shown how effective they can be and how much that endorsement really does mean.

SPEAKER_02 16:20

You know, as an organization, it I've been on the inside and and watched them and been in Congress. You see them a lot. They come and visit with you a lot. And they they really don't ask you for anything other than time, and they won't explain how the farmers are, and they won't explain what it means to the farm community. They truly represent the farm community. And I invited them to come in. Uh, Mitt Walker, which is their their lobbyist, uh, I'd come in a lot of times, and Mitt would be with his feet propped up on my desk waiting on me, which is fine with me. That's great, because it would be something new that a new problem or a new opportunity to come up with. Because our farm community, my lord, if we don't take care of them, we're we're gonna go hungry pretty quick.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

For sure.

SPEAKER_02 17:07

And there's so many jobs in in this district. I mean, look uh look look around here, everything north of here obviously is is farm communities. We love our farmers. They're they're very humble, down-to-earth people, and they feed us every day. Can't forget that.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

There were a couple of surprises with this last election, one being turnout, and two there being a higher Democratic vote turnout than in the past. That being said, with the uh situation that's going on with Tupperville right now, theoretically, if he was disqualified from the race and there was a stronger chance for a Democrat to win, what do you think that that would look like for Alabama?

SPEAKER_02 17:47

Well, there's a lot in that. Let me see if I can peel that onion. Uh first of all, I don't think coach is going anywhere. I think coach has got a solid, solid foundation. I talked to him three years ago uh when he started talking about running. I was with him uh in Washington and he talked to me about it. I said, you know, the the issue came up about his residence and the conversation. He said, I've got that all covered, all documented. I'm in good shape. So I have to I have to follow Coach. Coach has never lied to me, and if Coach says it's true, it's true. Uh the the low turnout on on this race, I think as a state, as a supermajority, meaning the Republican Party, we are falling asleep at the wheel. I think we're taking for granted the fact that we could lose this state. Uh Huntsville is a good example. It's turning purple uh with so many new residents moving in there with the FBI and NASA and all the different groups that are moving in there. And we're glad to have those those jobs uh just keep keep sending those jobs. But it's our job as a Republican Party also to get up there and tell them why the Republican Party is better than the Democrat Party that they used to deal with. Uh so we as a Republican Party, I think, falling asleep at the wheel. We've got to do a better job of getting people to turn out. And how to do that, I don't know. People have got fatigue right now, they're tired of races, they're tired of all the bickering. I mean, you look at this race that we we just ran. Um, there was a couple little squabbles here and there. Not much, not much at all. Um, it out of a seven-man race during that race, we stayed pretty darn on point. And I promised myself and I promised God that I was gonna focus on me, myself, and I. That's the only three people I was gonna focus on. And I did. I, you know, and we all kind of held our mud and we didn't throw it, which is we need to get back more to that. Tell me why to vote for you. Don't tell me why I need to vote against this person. And I hope this race stays the same. It's gonna be a very short race, obviously. It's just a snapshot. I think we got less than 50 days left now. Not sure when this gets released, but it'll probably be less than that, obviously. Uh, but it it's uh it's it's a very, you know, focus on the candidate, focus on uh the the candidates' uh qualifications. Well, how do they qualify? In this state, I think we're gotten away from that. I think we've we've allowed the uh the talking heads to tell us it's more important to trash someone than it is to build yourself up. Yeah. You know, I want people to vote vote vote for me, not against him. Yeah, if that makes sense. Now that vote, I'll still take that vote, don't get me wrong, but it makes it feel better when people say, I like what you said, I'm gonna vote for you, versus I dislike that guy, I'm gonna vote for you.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

Yeah. Yeah, mainstream media has not been a help in these last few years on anything.

SPEAKER_02 20:48

Yeah, and it's it's it's frustrating.

SPEAKER_00 20:50

Going back to the we take it for granted that this is a red state sometimes. So I'm from Pensacola from Northwest Florida, and that was one of the most conservative, you know, districts, Florida Congressional one. And I worked that district a few times. The very last cycle where Patronus um was running, after, you know, Gates went up to attorney general and left his seat and then resigned. That um Scambia County, which is the most populated county there, flipped blue. So the rest of the district still was red, but like they've already a huge county has already flipped blue since that last cycle. And that really surprised a lot of people because it had been so deeply red for such a long time. And I think that's directly next to Alabama. And we have all this growth. We have all this, you know, we live down here at the beach and we can't get through traffic. It's just people, you know, with all that people comes different ideas and different political backgrounds and opinions. So we have to really take that into consideration. And John Wall was here talking about this too. The Republican Party, I think, should be building and not just trying to hold on to what they have. You have to also be building, and that means, you know, doing things to have outreach to minorities and young people and other things and keep building that base. And I would like to see that for Alabama.

SPEAKER_02 21:55

I you know, I think the young people uh scenario is certainly something we need to focus more on. And Minorities, we've been working on that for a while. I think the minority, uh, the the mentality, breaking that mentality, you know, you're born a Democrat, you voted Democrat your entire life. Uh, you know, when I was a child, everybody was a Democrat. Everybody was Democrat. You know, and it that has changed, obviously. We didn't leave the Democrat Party, and the Democrat Party left us. And uh, so it it it's uh we have got to do a better job of trying to bring those people in. You're talking about Patronus over in in Pensacola. You know, his family's actually from Baldwin County. So all the all the uh uh there, Malbus, those were all Patronas is the Greek families that set that up. Oh that's his family, which I talked to him the other day. I thought was a pretty neat story.

SPEAKER_00 22:45

That um, yeah, Pensacola is just changing so much. And I mean, so is Baldwin County in a lot of ways. So when it comes to constituents bringing forth issues that they want to see you work on in Congress, I know like people don't realize what Congress does is appropriate a budget. They can't like go in and solve every issue. But in terms of that, what do you think is the number one issue that people are asking for help with?

SPEAKER_02 23:03

You know, the number one issue in Baldwin County is infrastructure. Everyone's screaming about infrastructure. I mean, moving around right now in Baldwin County is a nightmare. I mean, from foley, it took us 40 minutes to get here. I mean, it's just it's just bumper to bumper traffic. So it's infrastructure. You know, those are the things that they're they're looking for. You know, they they want cheaper gas. They want they they want to get the cost uh of uh dozen eggs, they want to get costs down. You know, we've got to get job, job, we've got to get payments up, we've got to get income up. I don't know how you're gonna ever get prices down. I'll tell you some of the stuff that I would love to focus on is price price gouging. The way they raise these fuel prices every time the barrel of gas goes up, if we did that during a hurricane, they'd put us in jail. That's price gouging where I'm from. And I think there's got to be some control, not necessarily just on the fuel industry, but looking at some of this other stuff too.

SPEAKER_00 23:58

I feel like you do that way.

SPEAKER_02 23:59

We never see it come down.

SPEAKER_00 24:00

With health care too, and like prescription meds, price gouging and stuff like that, too. It's kind of crazy. So um, yeah, I think me as like a younger person, I'm 38, not like so young, but one of the things I care about is uh I want to be able to buy a house one day. I feel like it's very out of reach because houses are incredibly expensive, especially in golf shores.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

Yeah, fixer it for $375,000. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:26

It just seems really like a pipe dream. And then affordability in general, because even with a two-income household, um, it's hard. Like everything, like you said, is just incredibly high compared to 10 years ago when, you know, I didn't think things would be like this. And you do everything right. You go to school. Like for me, I went to college, went to law school, did all this stuff, took out student loans to make it happen. And then you're hit with all this, and it's like, wow, how am I going to make this work? Um so I guess as a congressman, what can you do to kind of help the quality of life for people kind of like us?

SPEAKER_02 24:57

Yeah, the one thing it, and this this goes over people's head, they don't quite get it, but I deal with a lot of different corporations that move through. And I'm always looking for corporations that are looking for a new home. Uh, when I left uh Congress, we were I was working with a group that wanted to build uh nothing but uh uh uh 155 caliber shell ammo. It was gonna be a huge plant. And I was talking to them, it was actually outside my district, but I had them interested in moving, I kept moving them further south, further south, uh, and and I was trying to get new jobs. I mean, this is technology, it's all new that these are long-term jobs that we can we can fill. So a lot of these companies that are moving through, Amazon Distribution Center Mobile is a good example. That was a cotton field. They brought me the project. I was a county commissioner at the time. They brought me the project, and I looked at it and I said, I know exactly where it needs to go. I was about a half a mile off, but it was a good place to start. And the reason they wanted it or looked at it was the on and off ramp for all their trucking needs. Well, that's roughly about 1,100 jobs that require no college education. And and when you when you look as a leader of a community, you have to look at the base that you're working with. Do you have a group that's got two years of college? Do you have a group that's got, you know, some trades about them? Any young person that's looking what to do right now, look at the trades industry. If you learn how to weld, if you learn electrical plumbing, uh pipe fitting, anything in the trades field, you'll always have a job. You'll never be without a job. And that's very, very important. Our shipping industry is about to explode over in Mobile, and we've got some big plans of some stuff that's about to come in that the maritime industry, which I've been working with over the last year, not as a congressman, just as an individual for Mobile that I've been flying back and forth to New Jersey and and looking at some ports on some issues. We we have got to get prepared for that. Those are going to be well-paid jobs. That's the way you can encourage young people, you know, by by getting those skills and getting those trades and being able to go out and make more money. Because when they make more money and it's feeding into the community, our roads get better. You know, all of our all of our government entities around local government get better. Balling County, it's an infrastructure issue. We've got to fix the infrastructure. Ballam County. We, the federal government, can't fix that. We can help, we can assist. But it's going to take good county government, it's going to take good state government that that's got a team player that's in Washington that's willing to work with them.

SPEAKER_00 27:41

So you're right about the maritime industry. I uh one of my five jobs is that I work for a barge broker and I sell uh barges and tugboats. They weren't out of Missouri, were they? Some of them are. There's uh there's mostly out of like New Orleans and the Homa area, but we go to like all the ports and stuff. And, you know, I went to law school and I always say, like, it's funny because you think being a allergian gets you all this money, it really doesn't. Like you still have to pick up these side jobs and do other things in order to survive. Um, you know, I teach law at Pensacola State College, and there's just so much, like there's really no way to just have one job, one industry, and survive, I think, for people nowadays. If you do, then you're very lucky. But for me, it was like you need to pick up where you can get up and find different skill sets. Um, and people, you know, like you said, those industries really are good things to tap into. It doesn't necessarily have to be out there welding something. Like you can just be doing the marketing for it or doing the web design for it or doing something for it and to think outside the box when it comes to different industry specifications.

SPEAKER_02 28:38

I've always had two or three jobs going at all times. I've always always had three or four or five companies. I think at most, I had about seven companies running at one time and doing different things. So uh it's just the way my mind works. I'm multitasking constantly.

SPEAKER_00 28:54

So, what are some of the things about your personal life? Like I know you were from Mobile County and you were county commissioner there, but before that, um what about your family and your background and where are you from originally?

SPEAKER_02 29:04

So I was born in Mobile. My parents got a divorce when I was about six years old. And I moved, uh my mother was from Talladega County. So she packed us up and we moved. Uh, had three older sisters, very mean older sisters, I might add. Uh no, they were great to me. Uh uh, but uh we moved to uh Sulacaga. Uh she opened up a fabric store, and uh two of us, my oldest sister had gotten married by then, but the uh the three of us youngers uh work grew up in the retail business. So we we grew up, you know, cutting material and picking out fabric and haul of material. Sunday when mother would get uh stuff bought brought in. We would we'd go down on Sunday afternoon and sort buttons or fold material or do something. So we just grew up working. Uh we thought that was pretty normal as a family. Um left there, um high school, graduated from high school there, played a little ball, didn't no college ball. Uh short time in uh school, I wanted to get into forestry. Uh got into forestry and decided sitting up in a fire tower all day probably wasn't fit my ADD personality. Uh so I came to Mobile and and just uh uh actually moved back to Mobile. My dad always loved Mobile and was kind of connected to Mobile. I moved back to Mobile and uh met my wife and got married, and the rest is history. So I was throwing Cokes when I met her working for Coca Cola. So wow. And then I I went uh from that to selling church furniture. So she married a pretty unstable job-wise guy. Uh we still laugh about it, but we did well. We've always been a team, team player. Uh she's always had my back. She always will. Married 45 years last month. Congratulations. I appreciate that. That's uh that's uh obviously been the majority of my life. So uh, but we've we've raised we've raised some great kids, we have some great grandkids. Uh excuse me, we have some great grandchildren, I should say, and uh we're we're excited about the future.

SPEAKER_00 31:13

That's awesome. Um, anything you want people to know, make your plea as to why they should vote for you in August, why they should come out to vote for one, and then why that vote should be for you.

SPEAKER_02 31:24

I want people to vote for me because they want somebody that wants to represent them in Washington. They want somebody that understands what the needs are. I've lived here, I've grown up here, I've spent uh enough time uh in in uh all four of these counties. I understand what the needs are. I want to represent you in Washington every day, not just three days a week. I love this district. This district has been very good to me, and it's time we get things to the next level. Mobile, Ballwin County, Covington County, and Scandia County are on the verge of some huge, huge positive things that are going to happen. But it won't happen unless you've got strong leadership. That's one thing that's where I step in, the strong leadership portion. I want to be your next congressman. So please, August 11th, get out and vote. Take your family to vote, ask your friends to vote. It's gonna be a very low vote turnout. We already anticipate that. So if you don't vote, it's gonna be lower. Your vote counts. People say all the time, oh, I'm just one vote. I know a congressman that won by six votes. We call her six pack. That is her nickname because she won by six votes. Every vote counts. So please get out and vote.

SPEAKER_00 32:50

And where can they find you online to learn more?

SPEAKER_02 32:53

Jerry Carl for Congress.com. Please get online. Uh, we've got a we've got a group of volunteers that would love to hear from you. Uh, we're gonna need people to poll watch, we're gonna need people to make phone calls, we're gonna need people to help us do some things. Obviously, contributions are always welcome. Uh, but uh just jerrycarlonline.com. Thank you so much. Thank you.