Alabama’s Choice Is Clear: Hampton Harris

Guest Opinion by Troy D. Carico

Tuesday is not just another primary. It is the day District 2 decides whether it will send a proven taxer or a fighter with spine to Washington. The special election primary has no runoff. Whoever finishes first wins the nomination and the chance to take on Democrat Shomari Figures in November. That means every vote counts and every voter must choose carefully.

Hampton Harris was the only Republican who stepped into the arena early when the district lines still favored the Democrat. While others waited for safer maps and better odds, Hampton Harris filed, organized, and took the fight to Figures when few were willing.

That is the measure of a man who does not need favorable conditions to stand. Courage is not convenient. It is demonstrated when the path is hard.

Harris brings more than political timing. He brings Christian conviction that does not bend with the wind. He is pro-life without exceptions because he believes every life is made in the image of God. Hampton Harris understands that family is the first and strongest institution in a free society.

He and his wife live those values daily. His wife is an active-duty Air Force officer, a JAG serving this nation in uniform. Harris knows the weight of service because he lives it. Military families in this district do not need another politician who visits bases for photo ops. They need a representative whose household understands deployment, sacrifice, and the demands placed on those who wear the uniform. Hampton Harris does just that.

His support for the military is not theoretical. Grandfathers who served, a wife who serves, and work in veterans’ legal assistance have shaped his view of what America owes those who defend her. He will not treat veterans as afterthoughts or political props. Hampton Harris will fight for the care, readiness, and respect they earned.

On economics, Harris understands what it means to build something private-sector and private-risk. Small business owners know the difference between talk and results. High taxes and regulatory weight crush the very people who create jobs in this district. Harris has lived that reality.

Contrast that record with the front-runner. State Representative Rhett Marques has spent years in Montgomery voting for higher taxes on the people he claims to represent. In 2019 he supported the Rebuild Alabama gas tax. The state rate rose from 18 cents to 30 cents per gallon. That is a 67 percent increase. The escalators continue. Alabamians still pay more every time they fill a tank because of that vote, and Marques was there for it. A man who helped raise the price of gasoline for working families and farmers does not get to rebrand himself as the conservative alternative two days before an election.

There are also lingering questions about tax liabilities tied to his tire shop operations in Enterprise and the fiscal burdens left on the local school district. Voters deserve answers before they hand him a larger platform and the power to vote on federal taxes. If we could not trust Rhett with his own finances and others finances from previous service, how could we send him to Washington with our money and expect him to be a good steward? Hampton Harris will do just that.

A record of supporting tax increases at the state level and questions about personal and local fiscal accountability are not the foundation for sending someone to Congress to restrain spending. Hampton Harris is a trained economist, a lawyer and a businessman. He is the right choice.

Marques has collected institutional endorsements and money. That does not erase the gas tax vote. It does not change the fact that he was not the first to challenge Figures when the district was drawn against Republicans. Hampton Harris is.

Endorsements are not character. Votes are.

District 2 needs a congressman who will not raise taxes on working Alabamians, who will defend the unborn without apology, who will stand for Christian and family values without compromise, and who understands military service from the inside of a military marriage. Hampton Harris is that man.

Further I would be remiss if I did not damn his primary opponent Rhett Marques who supported SB 67 several years back. SB67 which gutted the Alabama Department of VETERANS AFFAIR and Admiral Kent Davis’s leadership was a direct assault and insult to our Veteran brothers and sisters in Alabama; he was an accessory to Governor Kay Ivey’s shameful power grab.

Hampton Harris would never have done that.

There is no second chance after the polls close this Tuesday August 11. The future of state and dare I say the Republic depends on it. As for me and my family we choose the Christian, conservative candidate who showed for the fight originally when no one else would, lives the values he talks of, supports our military and veterans and has never voted to raise the gas tax on the people of Alabama. Choose Hampton Harris.

Troy Carico is a decorated U.S. Army Veteran whose career spanned more than 22 years in uniform. He began as an infantryman and was later commissioned as an officer, earning additional branch qualifications in counterintelligence and military intelligence. His service record includes numerous awards for distinction, as well as recognition as a service-connected disabled Veteran. Following his military career, Carico continued serving the nation as a civilian intelligence officer with the Defense Intelligence Agency’s elite Great Skills Program, where he took part in multiple clandestine assignments across the globe.

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