There is a long list of candidates that hope to replace incumbent Kay Ivey in the role of Alabama Governor. The primary elections will be held on June 5 and candidates for Republican and Democratic nominations are touring the state to gather support.  

Among those candidates for the Republican nomination is Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle, who visited St. Clair County constituents on March 28. He has received acclaim for his role in the acquisition of the Toyota Mazda plant for the area. Battle has been Mayor of Huntsville for 10 years, during which he spoke of creating jobs and bringing in new businesses to help grow and repair the economy after the Recession in 2008.

“When Toyota Mazda came in, we were all at the table. We had the conversation of what we needed to do, how we needed to bring them to the table and how we needed to work with them,” Battle said. “And it takes a partnership and I think that’s one of the key things that we all need to look at is how can we partner with other communities because it’s not just our success when Toyota Mazda landed to the very westernmost section of the city of Huntsville. It’s not just our success…all of those [surrounding counties] benefit from what is happening there, as we’ve grown 24,000 jobs over the past ten years… As you watch economic success, economic success breeds other economic success. And if can make sure that everyone understands that, that is key to us.”

Part of growing the economic development of Huntsville, which Battle hopes to expand statewide if elected Governor, is also focusing on education. Battle has stated, “If you have an educated community, you will continue to grow.” Battle helped implement a Cyber Huntsville program. The Cyber Huntsville program initially began as a way to recognize Huntsville as a “cyber center of excellence.”

The program partners 15-20 companies, which work in the cyber industry with local schools to teach cyber courses. The initiative has grown to have Cyber teams in all of the middle and high schools in the Huntsville area. They also began coding programs in second and third grade, which Battle states would create a workforce for the cyber industry that continues to grow.

“We also started a cyber camp just like space camp,” Battle explained. “We tied it in with the Space and Rocket Center to put a cyber camp…all fit into a week-long immersion into the cyber world. We recently culminated it by Cyber Huntsville and went to Montgomery. We are going to have a Cyber Engineering School in Huntsville, which will be a school for the whole state of Alabama where any kid who is interested in cyber or science or technology of engineering can come and actually live on campus and can go to school. We’ll be starting the first year next year.”

Adding curriculum such as cyber and coding classes on a state level may present challenges to other school systems, which may not be as well funded, but that is a challenge Battle would like to work with local municipalities to solve.

“Education gets down to locals–local communities have to drive education. We can provide the basics for education around $5600 per year per student but we have to use our bully pulpit also if you come in and to talk communities into doing better too,” Battle said. “We just passed four education efforts to extend property taxes by 73 percent in our area but it’s because we have emphasized the importance of education, how important it is for your community, how important it is for value of your home, how important it is for your children to be able to advance and be able to go to either technical colleges or get out in the workforce and be career ready or to be college ready and not have to take those remedial courses. It’s something that we need to push across the state is that each community has to support their school system. You get back what you put into it. It’s an investment.”

Battle emphasized the importance of k-12 education as a way to create opportunities to attract industry, attract jobs, and keep those opportunities within the community. Battle also spoke of working with local community colleges, technical colleges, and four-year colleges with a “vertical partnership,” such as dual enrollment, transferring credits, and affordability.

“The idea that you’re going to be going from a two-year to a four-year college can also be an affordable thing for you and you can make education affordable,” stated Battle. “Our community college system covers the whole state of Alabama. You don’t go into any community without going by a community college that is in somebody’s local community. So less than 30-minute drive for anybody to get an education and to further their education is kind of a key for us that helps each one of us.”

Speaking of education also brought to the forefront the issue of school safety. According to data from Everytown for Gun Safety, which tracks shootings on school grounds, there have been 94 gun-related deaths in schools since 2012.  Huntsville saw school violence first-hand and implemented safety measures to prevent additional fatalities.

“We’re probably one of the only communities (in Alabama) that have had to go through the terror and tragedy of a school shooting. We had the shooting at UAH where one faculty member shot six other faculty members. Six days later we had a shooting in our sister community of Madison where a middle schooler shot another middle schooler,” Battle explained. “If you’ve ever been to those memorial services or ever been to those funerals it tugs at your heart and you think ‘How can I make sure that doesn’t happen again?’ And so we started from that time, seven or eight years ago, making sure that our schools had some of the best safety features that were possible.”

Those safety features included putting fences around schools so there is only one entrance and exit point, requiring security checks before entering the school, being identified by school employees, and placing security officers in schools.

“Does one size fit all? Probably not,” Battle said. “There’s going to be some other communities that are going to want to do something else but I think across the board we’ve got to make each community come up with a plan. How are you going to make sure your students stay safe in school so as a child goes to school they don’t have to worry about ‘Am I coming home?’ That is the most important thing that we can do for our students and we have solved it in one place. We can offer up that model.”

Another issue that Battle is focused on during his campaign is politics in Montgomery. He has stated that he is not running against anyone, but for Alabama. Battle believes that voters have been 

“People have to get comfortable with their government. They have to understand what their government is, what you’re doing, how you’re doing it, and what your end game is, and what you want to accomplish at the end of it,” Battle explained. “For ten years [in Huntsville], we’ve been telling the people this is how we’re going to approach this problem, this is what the end result will be, and this is how we’ll do it. And as we’ve done that, as we’ve communicated across to people our plans and end game they have gotten very comfortable with the idea that we are going to do the right thing.”

“Montgomery, unfortunately, is not that way. As long as I have been around, people have looked at Montgomery with a bit of jaundiced eye, maybe a little bit cynically, and wondered why is it that we don’t trust Montgomery the way we should? I’ve been working for ten years working up a solid reputation of achieving what we can do and how we can do it and how we can make sure the city runs well, and to build up a reputation that people trust. We’ve got to rebuild that trust in Montgomery.”

Next, Battle will be visiting Moody Civic Center for the Moody Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon with other Gubernational candidates. All candidates have been invited. The Republican candidates that are confirmed to attend are Tommy Battle and Scott Dawson, a Baptist Minister from Birmingham. The Democratic candidates confirmed to speak are Sue Bell Cobb, previously an Alabama Supreme Court Justice and Circuit Judge, and James Fields, minister and previous State Representative.

The luncheon will be held at the Moody Civic Center on May 10 at 11:30 a.m. Cost for the luncheon is $12 with reservation. Contact the Moody Chamber of Commerce for more information and to make reservations at 205-640-6262.

For more information about Tommy Battle, visit tommybattle.com.