Fifth Congressional district candidates participate in Huntsville forum

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) - Candidates that are campaigning to represent Alabama’s 5th Congressional District participated in a forum on Thursday night.

The forum was titled Candidates and Cookies as Andy Blalock, John Roberts, Paul Sanford, Casey Wardynski and Charlie Thompson answered questions from the public and were given the chance to lay out important issues.

“We have to recommit to American energy and independence,” Roberts said. “Energy is reliant for the entire economy, if we’re not able to produce energy efficiently and domestically, then we cannot be efficient as a country.”

“We are 30 trillion dollars in debt, it’s been 20 years since America has had a balanced budget at the federal level,” former State Senator Sanford started. “There’s probably not one family in here or one business owner that’s operated your family budget or business budget for 20 years without balancing it.”

Candidates were also asked about more controversial issues like abortion, mask mandates and the opioid crisis.

“We have people coming across the border bringing drugs, we have to increase the penalties on them, put them in jail,” Blalock said, regarding fentanyl. “I’m going further than that, we have to bus them back to their country and say if you come back and we catch you, you’re going to face something much worse.”

“Before it’s of a certain size, it’s technically more than anything a women’s health issue,” lone Democrat attendee Thompson said regarding abortion. “The mother could die, obviously safety. If it’s an incest or a relationship, safety. If it’s a rape victim, safety.”

“Today, and over the last weeks, I’ve been working on attempts here in our own town to violate the prohibition in our state on vaccine passports,” Wardynski said. “Our government put it in place because our citizens demanded it. That their health and choices not be infringed upon by state government.”

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