A friend of mine - someone who thinks just like my subscribers - is running for Lieutenant Governor

Guest Opinion by Bill Rice, Jr.

Several months ago, I wrote a tongue-in-cheek column, mentioning that I was considering running for U.S. Senate - not to advance five or six of the usual "issues," but simply to highlight the "crimes against humanity" that occurred in Covid.

While this effort never took flight (as I received no donations to cover the qualifying fee), it turns out that a friend of mine is running for a significant state office, Alabama Lt. Governor. A central part of Dr. Stewart Tankersley's campaign is his effort to hold policy-makers responsible for the “worst catastrophe in our nation’s history.”

As Dr. Tankersley told me in a recent phone conversation, as far as he knows his race is one of the few in the nation where a candidate for state-wide office refuses to forget the harms caused by Covid.

As Alabama’s Lt. Governor, Dr. Tankersley will possess - and, he says, use - a “bully pulpit” which, he hopes allows him to create a grassroots-movement that will result in the banning of the Covid vaccines and block any efforts to produce more “draconian” and unnecessary public health responses.

Dr. Tankersley is running against six other candidates in the primary field. According to Stewart, none of the two perceived front-runners, including the current Secretary of State, have particularly strong name identification.

Tankersley is somewhat well known throughout the state as he was probably Alabama’s most conspicuous critic of the Covid response.

His views have been covered on TV and Talk Radio appearances. He’s also written numerous op-ed pieces in alternative media publications in our state, including 1819News.com.

If, say, 20 to 25 percent of state Republicans are major critics of the Covid response, Dr. Tankersley should receive the bulk of this potential voting bloc.

He is also a well-known (fourth-generation) family physician in Montgomery and a decorated veteran of the Alabama National Guard, where he retired with the rank of Colonel.

Furthermore, he has some political experience as he served in an appointed position on the Alabama Ethics Commission for several years

Several of his relatives were prominent local and state figures, including a great uncle, U.S. Senator Lister Hill. (Another ancestor was a Montgomery physician who performed the first open heart surgery in America).

As a family doctor with an impressive military background, Stewart could tap into any political movement that might favor political outsiders. (I know that many physicians have been elected to office, including two of my favorite Republicans, Dr. Ron Paul and Dr. Rand Paul among others.)

Some “Covid Contrarians” might be familiar with Dr. Tankersley as he has become a close friend of Dr. Peter McCullough and, once a week, co-hosts a podcast show on the “America Out Loud (Pulse)” Network started by Dr. McCullough’s organization.

Stewart tells me he’s attended several campaign forums throughout the state and the messages of a non-professional politician have been “very well received.”

In fact, he tells me that none of the candidates seem to be espousing any message that would make them seem unique or out of the ordinary.

“I think my message does stand out,” he said.

Certainly, no candidate talks about the Covid response in every speaking event or interview like Stewart does.

While Dr. Tankersley seems to agree with everything I’ve written about Covid, he is a legitimate medical expert and has co-authored several medical studies, including one on the spike in miscarriages among expectant mothers who received the Covid “vaccine.”

In researching this story, I found an archived radio interview Stewart did in 2020 where he called Covid “the worst catastrophe in our nation’s history,” mentioning slavery and the number of aborted children since Roe v. Wade as two other contenders for this ignominious title.

In the interview he stated, “We have to acknowledge how bad (our public health officials) failed .”… According to Dr. Tankersley, the CDC, “Implemented the most draconian measures they could.”

Even today, the CDC believes it should “take more control” (see my last column), “when the correct response,” he said, “is to let citizens be in charge of their own health decisions.”

In the same interview, the retired colonel noted that a military source told him that in the first 23 months of Covid, only 83 of 2.4 million military personnel allegedly died “from Covid,” which does not connote a “deadly” virus worthy of such a draconian response, he said.

He also noted that excess deaths since the roll-out of the “vaccines” have spiked dramatically, citing an anecdote from a life insurance executive who admitted that this company had seen a 40 percent increase in deaths of policy holders in the 18 to 64-year-old demo.

On a positive note, he reported a study that said 3 out of 4 Alabamians said they were not going to get another shot after receiving their first one or two doses.

Dr. Tankersley called for the dismissal of Alabama’s chief physician …

In one of his regular op-ed pieces at the website 1819 News, he called for the dismissal of the director of the Alabama Department of Public Health, Dr. Scott Harris.

Wrote Tankersley:

“From the WHO, NIH, FDA, CDC, state public health authorities and all the way down to the county coroner, there has been a massive avoidance of accountability alongside a demonstrable insatiable thirst for power and control- all to the detriment of our God-given rights and responsibilities.”

“When history tells the story of what happened in The Great COVID Debacle, the most critical factor will be the epic failure and demonstrable incompetence of our public health authorities.”

In a podcast episode aired by 1819 News (with the headline “Governmental Genocide”), Tankersley warned viewers of the agenda of globalist organizations like the World Health Organization.

“Whether it’s taking the jab that is poisonous or whether it is you can no longer go out of your house, you’re going the be locked in your home,” he said. “They could declare, for example, climate change as an emergency, and, as a result of that, no more driving your car. If you didn’t wake up to the abuses in COVID, that was a teaser because what they’re planning for us is not for freedom.”

In 2021, Dr. Tankersley was one of the keynote speakers at an anti-vax symposium in Montgomery organized by a state chapter of the Concerned Doctors organization (Tankersley is a founder of this organization).

WSFA TV ran a sound-bite of Dr. Tankersely, who was specifically criticizing vaccine mandates.

“How can our country allow this to occur?” asked Dr. Tankersely. “Where did our freedoms go?”

In one of his radio interviews, Dr. Tankersley, a person of deep religious faith, made a point I remember him making in one of our phone conversations.

Dr. Tankersley said leaders of churches did not exhibit Godly leadership during Covid.

“Our preachers, priests and rabbis did not stand up to it (the draconian government response),” he said.

In Dr. Tankersley’s view, America needs to experience a real spiritual revival, which would first require those who sinned to sincerely “repent.”

“We need to re-evaluate who we are as a country,” he said.

In another appearance, he made a related point.

”The classical definition of freedom is the ability to put responsible constraints on yourself,” he explained. “... Something’s got to change … where people who have done such evil are held to account. That is love; that’s what love looks like.”

Dr. Tankersley’s campaign website features a 1-minute and 40-second clip, where he summarizes his views on Covid.

“During the Covid Pandemic, we lost our way,” he says. “Government shut-down debate, ignored common sense and demanded obedience; that was wrong. I spoke up, asked the hard questions and demanded responsibility … Leaders should always answer to the people. Public service means standing up when it matters most.”

America or Alabama’s Covid response are, of course, not the only planks of Tankersley’s campaign.

As a physician, he said the components of Robert F. Kennedy’s MAHA movement are valid as America’s current healthcare system is clearly not working.

Healthcare - like all aspects of daily life for many citizens - is increasingly becoming “unaffordable,” he said.

ObamaCare, in his estimation, has made things worse.

“… The stated intent of Obamacare, according to its namesake, was to ultimately bring about a single-payer healthcare system,” he wrote. “In order for this to occur, two fundamental things must happen. The first is to destroy the middle class, the second is to create a healthcare framework dictated by a large medical/hospital system through which federal bureaucrats can force changes in the delivery of all our healthcare.”

As Alabama’s lieutenant governor, Dr. Tankersley would serve as the chief executive of the Alabama Legislature, but actually can only vote to break ties.

Dr. Tankersley said the office can influence policy via hundreds of appointments the Lt. Governor can make or influence.

He said the best thing he can do in the position is to be the eyes and ears of citizens and report to them what’s taking place in the Legislature.

As such, he plans to do a regular podcast segment where he simply reports on key developments. (This will allow him to use the “bully pulpit,” where Dr. Tankersley told me he would highlight the phenomena of the embalmers’ clots).

In his view, Alabama is probably like all states in that a select group of politically-powerful interest groups largely dictate what laws and regulations are passed or not passed.

Dr. Tankersley calls these organizations the “Big Mules” of Alabama politics.

If these groups want a bill passed into law, this almost certainly will happen, which doesn’t necessarily help every-day citizens, he said.

Using Covid as an example, he said there was no legislative oversight of the bureaucratic agencies that effectively set policy.

According to Tankersley, “the biggest mule” in Alabama is a college and healthcare system - the University of Alabama Birmingham.

(In a previous story I documented the massive amounts of money UAB receives from “science” and health grants issued by the NIH and NIAID.)

UAB also owns and operates numerous hospitals in the state, which taps into the gargantuan health complex.

I’m voting for Stewart!

The Republican primary will be held May 19th - at which time we will learn if a principled “Covid Contrarian” physician can beat a field of candidates who were largely silent on the response to Covid.

Dr. Tankersley definitely has my vote and I’m sure he would greatly appreciate any campaign donations from citizens throughout the country who might be pulling for anyone who will challenge the “Big Mules” who control politics.

Here’s Stewart’s campaign website, which has a “donate” link as well as a link to contact the candidate with well-wishes or campaign suggestions: https://stewarttankersley.com.

This article by Bill Rice, Jr. initially appeared on his Substack. It is reprinted here by permission.

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