Meet the three candidates running for the Senate seat in District 9

MARSHALL CO., Ala. (WAFF) - Three Republican candidates want your vote to fill former Senator Clay Scofield’s District 9 seat.

Current State Representative Wes Kitchens is a Marshall County native originating from Arab. He was elected to serve in the Alabama House of Representatives in 2018. Since then, he has held a leadership position within the house.

Kitchens says if he is elected, he’d like to keep his focus on career tech programs throughout the state.

“Workforce development, making sure that we have people to fill the jobs. There’s help wanted signs all across North Alabama, all across the country right now. We need to make sure that we’re able to recruit and retain a quality right here all over North Alabama, but around the state as well,” Kitchens said.

Also looking to get a chance at the Senate seat for District 9 is former Morgan County Commissioner Stacy Lee George. George served the Commission for eight years before moving to serve the Department of Corrections for the last 13 years.

George says he wants to tackle prison reform, because he feels some money spent on inmates should be spent on education.

“The budget there is climbing over a billion dollars for prison. It looks like we’re spending more per inmate in a prison than we are for a student,” George said.

Brock Colvin hails from Albertville with deep family roots. He says his family owned several small businesses over the years as he was growing up. Colvin attended Snead State Community College as well as the University of Alabama.

Colvin, also a current state representative, would like to continue Scofield’s effort to bring more internet connectivity to rural areas.

“Senator Scofield was a champion for broadband expansion and Senate District 9 is very rural. There’s still people in our area that still don’t have good broadband at home. So that’s gonna be another thing we do, focus on broadband,” Colvin said.

With just two months to persuade voters, all candidates say they’ve hit the ground running.

“In two days we’ve already knocked on almost 600 doors and raised $25,000 just in our community not even counting Montgomery money,” Colvin said.

”I’ll be spending a lot of time on the ground, that’s where I’m best. I’ve got a commitment to work everyday that I can,” George said.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do in 2 months but we’ve hit the ground running and we’re ready to move forward,” Kitchens said.

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