From our state House studio in Montgomery.

I'm Todd Stacy, welcome to Capitol Journal.

We begin this week in Washington, where Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville and Katie Britt took part in key legislative hearings.

And in the House, Congresswoman Terri Sewell's bipartisan cancer screening bill advanced.

Our own Alex Angle reports from Capitol Hill.

Recapping this week with Alabama's congressional delegation, the Senate Committee on Health, education, Labor and Pensions will please come to order.

Ousted CDC Director Susan Minerals told a Senate committee Wednesday she was fired after just 29 day for refusing to change vaccine requirements without evidence, even under pressure.

I could not replace evidence with ideology or compromise my integrity.

But her testimony clashed with Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr's account of the firing.

It's hard to explain what you know here to find out who's telling the truth, because there's a lot of discrepancies on both sides.

Senator Tommy Tuberville also suggested that she should have more closely followed Kennedy's orders.

Now, Kennedy is invited to testify in front of that same committee, in separate hearings.

FBI Director Kash Patel appeare before the Judiciary Committee this week.

Senator Katie Britt honed i on the assassination of Charlie Kirk, discussing with Patel how to crack down on those promoting and encouraging political violence.

We must get to the bottom of it.

We must follow the money someone is funding this discourse.

Also this week, a Hous committee unanimously advanced Congresswoman Terri Soules cancer screening bill.

It's named in honor of her late mother who died of pancreatic cancer.

With this new therapies and new types of screening that can actually screen 40 different cancers with a vial of blood, I mean, that's amazing.

And so when it is FDA approved, we want it fast tracked.

Make sure that it is covered by Medicare.

Sewell spoke to Alabamians and cancer research advocate outside the Capitol on Tuesday, as they lobbie for more investment in research.

UAB pediatric cancer researcher doctor on Corsicana was in attendance.

He says it's been challenging dealing with the unpredictability of grant funding over the past several months.

Part of the issue, of course, is not just the potential cuts, but the uncertainty.

Every day brings a new development, sometimes within a few hours.

House and Senate a appropriators have so far rejected the White House's proposed spending cuts to the health department, but no full year spending bills have yet to be sent to President Trump's desk.

Reporting on Capitol Hill, Alex Engle, Capitol Journal.

Thank you Alex.

And the U.S.

House on Friday narrowly passed a stopgap spending bill mean to avert a government shutdown.

The Republican backed bill extends current spending levels until Novembe 21st in order to allow more time to negotiat a larger appropriations package.

But Democrats want to add provisions to the bill, including an extension of the Affordable Care Act.

Premium tax credits.

Republicans say that's a debate for another day, arguing this so-called clea bill shouldn't be controversial.

Government funding runs out at the end of September, so typically I'm a no on any C.R.

because it's bad for defense.

But I voted for this one mainly because we're still talking with the Democrats.

We're not trying to please the extremists on our side or the extremists on the Democrats.

We're seeing the expiration of the ACA tax credits, which provide the subsidy that so many of the people in my district need in order to be abl to afford health care coverage.

So I will be fighting for that.

I think that it is important that we get that as a part of the CR.

Now, the Senate has yet to pass that continuing resolution, and Congress is out on reces next week, leaving little time to reach a deal before the deadlin at the end of the fiscal year.

Well, it's been a little over a week since the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

And Alabama.

Republicans continue to remember the life of the conservative activist.

The US House passed a resolution honoring Kirk, and the U.S.

Senate passed a resolution calling for October 14th, Kirk's birthday, to b a national day of remembrance.

Charlie may have gone home to be with the Lord, but his work here on earth won't stop.

I'm glad to see that Turnin Point has had more than 54,000 requests for new chapters at colleges and high schools across the country.

I have a granddaughter, Rosie Grace, and I will absolutely encourage her to get involved in Turning Point when she is just a little bit older.

Our heart breaks, not only for Erica and Charlie's two children and for parents and families, but for Americ and for those of us who knew him back here in Montgomery.

The state's reentry task force met this week.

It is building upon years of work to help people leaving prison succeed once they return home.

And while the state has made progress.

Task force members sa there is still much work to do.

Capitol Journal's Jeff Sanders has more.

Alabama created the Joint Reentry Commission in 2021 to study barriers faced by people coming out of prison.

And in 2024, lawmakers reauthorized it as the Alabama Reentry Task Force.

How do we get belo 15% recidivism rate, which would put us in the top in the country as far as low recidivism?

How do we get there?

You got to constantly evolve to deal with the problem.

It's public safety 101.

But you have to do something.

If you provide no services or you don't address the issue underlying issue.

The odds them goin back to prison greatly increase.

One immediate priority is identification.

The Alabama Law Enforcemen Agency is preparing to issue IDs and driver's license inside prisons before release.

It's a step meant to clear one of the most basic hurdles to reentry getting their paperwork in line.

So whether it's Social Security card, birth certificates, the biggest thing that's the hardest thing, especially if they're born outside of Alabama.

Another issue is inmate who finished training programs only to lear they're blocked from those jobs because of their record.

Task force leaders say those restriction need to be clear from the start.

Part of the onus on this group is to make sure that those type of things do not happen, and that people are kind of are informed of what services are available to them up front.

And with so many state agencies at the table.

Chairman Ward says the focus now is on moving forward together with the same goal.

It's every person's different.

So you got to analyze every single person.

But we all have to share data that we haven't been doing over the years.

If we share the data, I know everything about them.

That mental health knows, the Veterans Affairs knows or the Da knows or Medicaid knows.

That's the key.

And a major success pointed out by the task force is the Prep Center in Perry County.

That's the parole rehabilitation education program.

It's a pilot program for now and has graduated hundreds of inmates, none of who so far have returned to prison.

Leaders hope to expand that program statewide.

Reporting from the statehouse in Montgomery.

I'm Jeff Sanders for Capitol Journal.

Thank you.

Jeff.

In the war on opioids and other illegal drugs, law enforcement officials and other first responders are often on the front lines.

But they are now getting some help.

Badly needed help from the Alabama Departments of Public Health and Mental Health.

Capita Journal's Randy Scott reports.

As law enforcement officials work to clear the streets of dangerous illegal drugs, their work parallels first responders who work to keep people using the drugs alive.

Kevin Hicks, administrator with the Montgomery County Health Department, is unveiling a new tool to help solve some of these problems.

The kiosk is medication that is free to the public.

No idea.

No prescription required.

The public can come right in and take one of the boxes inside, and then they can use it hopefully to prevent or mitigate an overdose to an opioid.

This stand at the Montgomery County Health Department will be stocked with boxes o Narcan, used to stop an overdose while a person is seeking emergency treatment.

Fighting off the effects of items such as opioids, fentanyl and heroin, opioids are being used or abused at a rate such that the partnership between Alabama Department of Mental Health and our pharmacy uni is to provide access to nor can, which is a medication if given, can prevent an unwanted overdose to an opioid.

The Alabama Department of Publi Health is adding a new wrinkle to the fight against opioids, drugs and overdosing.

That's Narcan, making it more available to citizens in times of need.

But medication isn't the only tool they're using.

They're also using education.

Not only is this a medication to prevent and to save one's life, but it's also the first step towards treatment and recovery of a addict or some family membe that has a prescription opioid.

This is the first step in a commitment to saving lives within our community.

This program just began and is set to teach citizens about the lifesaving abilities of Narcan and how to properly use it.

Officials also hope it teaches them to just say no to drugs.

And this is a supported, supported commitment through the CDC initiative and our Alabama Department of Mental Health, as well as our pharmacy unit within the Alabama Department of Public Health.

Officials will monito how successful the program is, and there's a chance it could appear elsewhere.

Jefferson County, Birmingham here is the first that we've got in the capital city.

I want to say they have an initiative of a program in mobile as well.

In Montgomery, Randy Scott, Capital Journal.

September is suicid prevention month, and joining me next to talk about that is Kim Boswell, commissioner of the Alabama Department of Mental Health.

Commissioner, thanks for coming back on the show.

Glad to be here, Todd.

Thanks for the invitation.

Absolutely.

I know you're on just a few weeks ago but this is an important topic, and I really wanted to get your take on it because Suicide Prevention Month, it's obviously a deep and meaningful topic, but I wanted to ask, what is the department doing?

What are what efforts are out there to, get the message out about preventing suicide?

So you're right, it's one of the most important conversations we can have all year.

It's really important to the department that we address, suicide.

And so, of course, one of the things that's really important in addressing suicide and suicide prevention is having services available 24 over seven whe someone is in a suicidal crisis.

And so a big par of how we're addressing suicide is really the standing u of crisis services in Alabama.

So for our crisis centers we've seen over 3600 individuals in our crisis centers who are in a suicidal crisis.

And so having those services available when the person is in that crisis is really, really important.

Obviously, nine, eight, eigh is a big part of that as well.

If someone is having a suicidal crisi and they're not sure where to go or what to do then dialing nine, eight, eight or having a family member dia 988 is really, really important in getting them connecte to the services that they need.

And beyond that, we just want to encourage people to talk about suicide.

Sometimes people think that, you know, if I ask someone if they're feeling that way, it's going to cause them, to do that.

And that's just one of the myths and it's not really true.

Oftentimes times, you know, if you talk to someone and you observe tha there changes in their behavior, maybe you hear them talking about feeling like they're a burden to others.

Maybe you hear them talkin about being in significant pain.

And right now, especially, I think it's really, really important to talk to people, to encourage them to talk about their feelings and ask them the question, are you feeling suicidal?

You're not going to push them in the direction of, you know, doing that if they're not?

You know, it's reall about having that conversation.

It's really okay to ask that question, because then they're going to open up about how they're feeling and why they're feeling the way they are.

And hopefully you then can connect them to that hope that they need.

Oh, that's such an importan point because that's I myself.

If I ever was in that situation, I might be hesitant to ask, you know, are you are you feeling this way?

And you're saying that's a conversation you should generate?

Yes, absolutely.

And it's also important to kno that 50% of the people who die by suicide never showed any signs.

Never had a conversation with anyone.

Never sought out behavioral health care.

And so, you know, it's really important for families to know sometimes that there are individuals that are not going to tell you that are not going to talk about it.

And that's one of the really, really challenging situations for families especially, is there are times when, you know, families say, you know, they never mentioned it, we never saw any signs.

And that's absolutely true.

There are lots of folks out there that once they've made that decision, they're not going to show signs and they're not going to talk to family members about it.

And so it's really important you know, to ask those questions if you even if you start seeing just a little bit of change in behavior, you know, if you see an increase in alcohol use or drug use that does put individuals at greater risk of suicide, because, you know, you're sort of taking down some of those barrier that, would normally be there, the inhibitions that would normally be there.

And so having a conversation is really, really important.

I know that there is an acut problem with veterans suicide, not just in Alabama but across the country.

Folks who have fought in war and have come back with wounds that we can't see tal about what the state is doing.

I know y'all are partners with the Department of Veterans Affairs on this.

What what efforts are out there to specifically address veteran suicide?

It is a huge issue for veterans.

We have seen a slight decrease in veteran suicides in our state, which is really good news.

We still have, you know, on veteran suicide is one to many.

And so we still are working diligently to try and address the issue, the Veterans Mental Health Steering Committe that has been operating really took on a couple of initiatives really designed to address, really suicide among our veterans.

One of them was the Houston Hunter act that was passed last year.

The legislation that we call Safer Together, which is an opportunity for veterans to take their weapons to, a variety of different locations, including, gun shops and other places where they can be safely stored.

The reason that's important is we know that if we can put Tom in distance between the lethal means and the thought of suicide that you can really save lives.

So having a safe place to store weapons, place where veterans trust the individual who's storing the weapon is really pretty importan in the grand scheme of things, because more often than not, veterans die by lethal means.

And so if we can put time and distance between that thought of suicide and that lethal means, then that gives family and others time to have that conversation with the veteran and try to divert that and ge them to the help that they need.

We also expande a traumatic brain injury program in our state through the Veterans Mental Health Steering Committee.

We know that substanc use and traumatic brain injury combined are two factors that put veterans at great risk of suicide, and so many veterans came home with traumatic brain injury.

Another sort of hidden, condition that we don't see necessarily.

And so the Alabama Legislature increased funding to the traumatic brain injury program so that veterans could receive help.

Before that, you had to have had a brain injury within the last two years to receive help.

And, of course, many veterans have been home a long time and didn't realize they had potentially a traumatic brain injury.

So now, in the state of Alabama, anyone who's had a brain injury can receive help through the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services.

And Alabama has a nationall recognized brain injury program.

And so we're very proud of that.

We're very proud of the Department of Rehab Services.

And we were really eager to expand that program.

Absolutely.

Thank you for, talking about that.

And I want to remind our audience, 988 there's the number that is the, mental health crisis line, including, for suicide prevention.

So, switching gears a bit.

This country has just gone through a pretty traumatic situation.

The Charlie Kirk Charlie Kirk assassination was widely seen.

Obviously, it was a traumatic event just unto itself.

But the act itself, the the horrendous murder, was viewed on social media b millions and millions of people.

Not just that there have bee other horrific acts of violence that years ago we would have never seen.

And yet we're seeing them on our screens now, including young people and everything.

So I wanted to ask you about that.

Just as a mental health professional and someone who manages that department.

What advice do you have for those who have experienced trauma, whether they know it or not?

Or for parents of children who are seeing things that we never expected them to see in terms of coming to grips with the things that we're seeing.

Again, it's really important, to have conversations.

You know, the truth is none of us like to be in pain, right?

And so when we have these horrific events, we really tend to struggle with grieving them appropriately.

And so part of what you see is people kind of get stuck in anger, because being angry about it is easier than really processing your feelings and dealing with the horrific things that have happened.

So it's really, really important for folks to talk to each other, to process those feelings, to not get stuck in that anger phase of grief that our whole nation is experiencing because of those horrific events.

And then the other thing that I get really concerned about, you know, we when it turn our body over to somebody and say, just do whatever you want.

And yet what I se is a mental health professional.

We turn our mind over.

To social media, to whatever's going on, on television.

Without much thought about what is coming in.

And that is not good for your mental health, not good for your physical health.

And so we really do have to grasp we're, you know, kind of decide, are we going to continue to let all that information come into our brain no matter what's out there?

Because I want people to thin of their brain as a battlefield, and there's some gates that need to be put up.

You don't need to take in every single thing that's on social media.

Your brain is going to absorb that, and then that's going to continue.

That negative line of thinking is going to continue.

The more you watch social media, sometimes the more you watch television.

It's just going to reinforce the same thing over and over again.

And so what I really want people to do is to think about what information is coming into their mind and how that shaping what they think, how they feel, their attitudes.

Becaus whether they realize it or not.

If you're not taking control of that, we're very unique as humans.

We can think about what we're thinking about, right?

You need to be thinking about what you're thinking about.

You need to be paying attention to what's coming into your mind, because that is now going to dictate your decisions, your attitud and your feelings moving forward in a Christian world.

And there's been a lot of conversation about faith in all of this.

From a biblical perspective, even you know, we're told to take every thought captive and to meditate on things that are good and true.

And so and so.

It really is importan for people to begin to do that, to not just let your mind be open to everything that's out there.

It's been a big part o the conversation with our youth.

It was a big part of takin the cell phones out of schools, because we don't want our youth just getting bombarded with all of those negative messages.

All of that violence.

What we experienced is collective trauma.

Everybody who saw that video experienced trauma, and everybody is going to feel a little less happy.

Everybody's going to maybe have trouble sleeping.

Have a conversation with people about it.

Process your feelings.

If you've had prior trauma and now that's adding to it, find yourself a good mental health professional or g talk to your minister about it.

We need to connect with each other and really put up some real guardrails as to what is coming into our mind every day, because that's what's going to dictate our attitudes, our feelings and our decisions.

Absolutely.

Be careful of lies.

What you see.

Right.

Thank you for that.

It's, Well, we'll put advice.

I hate that we're out of time, but thank you so much for coming on here and explaining some of this.

Such an important, topic.

Commissioner Boswell, thank you.

Thank you.

We'll be right back.

You're watching Alabama Public Television celebrating 70 years of service to Alabama.

Welcome back to Capital Journal.

This week is Truck Driver Appreciation Week.

And joining m next to talk about that is Mark Colson, president of the Alabama Trucking Association.

Mark thanks for coming on the show.

Thank you for having me.

It's great to be back.

I think we do this every year with with the truck driver being very kind and generous to the truckers in Alabama.

And we appreciate it.

Well, look, it's an important industry and we're here to talk about it.

But I was hoping as we begin, you could remind our audience about the association, about RTA and its role in a policy role and a, advocacy role in the state.

You know, the Alabama Trucking Association has been around since 1936.

Trucks weren' around much longer than before that, as you as you know.

But, you know, we we were built to serv the Alabama trucking companies and the folks that work with them, that run our run our economy.

Certainly our role has evolved since 1936.

Even to this day.

But number one is always safety.

We promote safety not just in rhetoric, but in training and a culture of safety and how we operate as an industry and how individual companies operate, how individual, individual professionals operate within our industry.

We hold high standards well above what's what the law requires.

And we also are out there to just be the voice for trucking.

We, you know, so 133,000 plus individuals in our state work in this industry.

It's 1 in 13 jobs in our state.

It's a great way to make a living.

Most people don't always get that story.

I kno we're going to talk a little bit about that storytelling today.

But but those men and women need someone to advocate for the in the halls of the statehouse, in the halls of Washington, locally, to let people know of the good things they're doing, and also to make sure that when we when we adopt regulations and policy, whether it be laws or, you know, rules that they make sense that they are they can be implemented and that they can be, you know, universal.

So they can be held standar because the trucking companies we're represent in Alabama, they operate in 48 states.

They operate all over this country.

They may call Alabama home, but they're they're all over this country because we're in the interstate commerce business.

So that's really important to have an advocate like the association that's out there for the Alabama truckers.

Well, yeah, talk more about that.

Because what issues in particular the trucking companies, truckers themselves run into, whether it's here at the state House or you mentioned Washington.

Obviously, we're federally federally regulated from a safety standpoint.

So a lot that happens in DC matters.

We could get in the weeds on a lot of those things.

They primarily have to do with safety regulations.

Environmental regulations have gotten really almost out of control over the last ten, 15 years.

We are seeing some rationalit be brought back to that space.

At the state level, it's primarily, again, about safety and fairness.

And when we talk about safety, I can't not mention our law enforcement partners, Alea and their tea there enforce our motor carrier rules on the interstate and on the highways of Alabama.

And they're dedicate to focus on commercial vehicle, enforcing it.

And we welcome that.

So we we partner with them and the Federal Motor Care Safety Administration because we believe enforcement is necessary when it when it's focused on the right things, holding people accountable, holding the standards high because highway safety is critically important.

For that reason, infrastructure is incredibly important.

How we construct and how we maintain our roads and bridges, that's a safety issue and a commerce issue and an economic issue.

And then, you know, the litigation environment, it is it is critically important to have a fair justice system that takes care of injured parties.

But we've seen a slide in Alabama.

Our industry has been targeted by some, and we're paying the price of that.

Everyone's paying the price of that.

But through insurance rates, the cost of goods and just the ability to operate in an environment where you know you want, you just want fairness.

I'll mention one more and you may bring this up, but we've seen over the last five, seven years, an entrance of bad actor into the trucking industry once.

Yeah I was going to ask about this, because in any industry, you're going to have som some bad actors, as you put it.

And there have been some recent instances of terrible accidents.

But the common thread at least, maybe it's just the political narrative.

They involve immigrants to this country and keels maybe from states that have more lenient rules and regulations than Alabama.

Talk about that in terms of holding bad actors within your own industry accountable.

Very proud of the trucking industry for acknowledging the challenge that exist within it, and being willing to be part of a solution and not make excuses.

It's one of the reasons I'm so proud to work for this association with this industry.

What you're referencing has happened, and in Thomasville, Alabama, there was a terrible tragedy.

The drivers of that truc should have never gotten a CDL.

There was one in Florida that got a lot of national attention.

President Trump, and this white House and thi US Department of Transportation, even Secretary of State Marco Rubio have come out with action to address to begin to address some of those thing in this easy to just get hung up on, the immigration issu in this some in a few instances, illegal immigration, that's important.

And like I said, fairness matters.

But it's also just a standard of if.

Should the individual be behind the wheel of a truck or not, if they're an immigrant or if they're an American, if they've been properly trained and they do all the right things?

That's what we're all about.

And those that have not should never have gotten behind the wheel.

And we have rules and laws in place today.

Some need to be focused on and enhanced.

We have a plan, myself and many, of my counterparts across the countr and in some of our friends in DC have been working aggressively on this.

But the whole point of it is we've got to prevent bad actors from getting in the industry.

And bad actors run the gamut of criminal enterprises who, you know, buy dot numbers and operat what we call a million carriers.

Yes.

People who operate and can't speak English proficiently, folks who get illegally issued non domiciled CDL from some state that didn't issue them properly and operate cross-border B1 visa drivers that are operating in trade zones that overstay their welcome in America compete with American truck drivers on price.

And I'll tell you, the American trucker and the American trucking companies right now feel like they can't.

It's hard.

It's a difficult environment to win.

Economics have been challenging.

And on one side they're being attacked by some in the litigation environment.

And on the other side, they feel like they can't compete with thos that aren't following the rules.

And so that is what is on the heart in the minds of Alabama truckers and truck trucking company folks right now.

And I'm proud that we're working aggressively on that.

And and challenging the status quo.

And we've got great partners in law enforcement and others to, to take us along the way.

Well, switching gears, it i Truck Driver appreciation Week.

So what what all has been going on?

To kind of acknowledge tha this week is an exciting week.

This is a week that, folks all across the country celebrate the professional truck driver.

That's the person behind th wheel of the truck that matters.

That moves.

86% of communities in Alabama depend 100% on trucking.

So it's how we it's how we run our economy, how we run our communities.

So this week, we've been going around just simply saying thank you.

I was at a trucking company yesterday.

I got to visit with our driver of the year, James White, who is a who's a great trucker, who won our award this year.

But more excitingly, we, launched what I like to cal appealing to the heart with art.

And, it is an anthem.

It's a song that was produced, by Alabama songwriters, by Alabama artists sweet trio.

And we'll give a shout out, to Kate, Savannah and Taylor with sweet T trio.

Some of your listeners, some of your viewers may have seen them at a performance around Alabama and recorded at Cypres Moon Studios in Muscle Shoals, which has a rich history.

It's called Highway Dreaming, and it debuted this week.

You can get it on any platform, you know, Spotify, Apple Music.

You can also watch the music video that we produced.

I was going to say we we happened to have a clip.

So this is Highwa Dreaming, by the sweet T trio.

Let's take a watch.

You know I'm wide awake.

But I was dreaming.

You.

Yes, I feel the need to roll.

Girl this time can't you never learn to?

My new desk is made of chrome.

I'm on the road to my future.

I'm on the road to my home.

I'm on the road.

Hallelujah.

And I'm right where I belong.

I'm boo boo boo boo boo boo.

Turning out bright in the morning.

Do you do all these white men.

It's time to go to.

Well, I mean, that's pretty cool.

I mean, that's that's legit kind of tears at your heartstrings a little bit.

You know, anytime Rob on highway comes on, I mean, maybe this is going to be the next generation's role on highway.

Well, truck drivers deserve some good news.

As I've mentioned before, there's a number of challenges out there.

We're addressing those, economic and farmers going to get better.

But this was a great way to celebrate the heartbeat of the American trucker, both here in Alabama and across this country.

They deserve something like tha song.

And it's it's beautiful.

How did that come about?

It's a great story.

They sweet T trio performed at an event of ours.

And then, my colleague Josh Vaughan Ford Boswell.

Many others collaborated with this creative thought.

What if we took what if we took a piece of music and really try to embody what what the spirit of all these truckers we get to spend time with all across the state and across the country.

And, the creative proces was really interesting to watch.

I was not necessaril at the front of that, but it was it was really excited to be a part of it.

Our team was really excited to be a part of it.

And I think it's a piece, a piece of art that we're all very proud of.

And folks can watch the ful video at my Trucking future.com as part of promoting the trucking industry, my Trucking future.com.

And you can also go to Highway dreaming.com and you'll find you'll find them both there.

My my trucking future is a way that we try to tell stories about individuals that in our industry, that are doing great work in our state wide awake but highway dreaming.

That's a that's a good lyric.

Well, Mark, get your sticker here.

You got I got you a sticke before.

All right.

And the hat.

I don't get to have a hat.

Oh, that's pretty good.

How did your.

Well, look, Mark, thanks for coming on and sharing so much about this industry.

And I hope you'll have, I hope you'll come back on and share more.

Thank you.

Todd, we'll be right back.

You can watch past episodes of Capital Journal online any time at Alabama Public Television's website.

App tv.org.

Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is Mitt Walker of the Alabama Farmers Federation.

Matt thanks for coming on the show.

Absolutely, doctor.

Well I wanted to have you on because, you know, we're getting towards the harvest season.

Maybe we're in the middle of it for some crops.

And it strikes me, you know, the beginning of summer was really rainy, and now we're in a pretty dry spell.

Yeah.

So I wanted to ask you how does that affecting crops?

What is it looking like as we get toward harvesting?

Sure.

Yeah.

You know, every year brings its own unique challenges.

Sometimes it's weather, sometimes it's disease.

But, you're right.

We did.

Got off to a slow start this year with a pretty wet spring, but thankfully, we got ample rains during th majority of the growing season.

Corn is being harvested now.

Yields looked really good on the corn.

The dry weather has actually been a benefit for those guys that are trying to, sell corn right now.

So that's been a positive.

Definitely need a little more rain to to finish out the soybeans peanut crop, things like that.

But here and really good things about yields overall.

Well, that's good news.

Okay.

What about like it's not just rain.

It's not just weather that affects, you know, farming and agriculture.

You've got fuel.

Sure You've got to have fertilizer.

I know that costs have bee really up on those two things.

What's the what's it been looking like in terms of what farmers have to actually purchase?

Yeah.

To be able to do their job.

Yeah.

I just was on a call before coming over today, and it looks like we're going to set a record for input costs this year across the country for, producing the various crops.

So, it's been difficult.

You know, some of it started with supply chain disruptions during Covid.

We've not seen prices come back down to their historic averages.

And, you kind of couple that with, really depressed commodity prices right now.

Corn, beans, cotton, you go down the list.

They're pretty low prices right now.

So even with these good yields, we're unfortunately in a situation where a lot of farmers have done everything right that they can control, and the markets are just not going to let them make much o a profit, if at all.

This year.

We've got a report from Auburn done recently looking at crop budgets, our best performing row crop in Alabama this year in terms of price.

It's peanuts.

They're going to net $1.98 an acre in profit, not $198 a one dollars and $0.98 per acre.

That's our best performing row crop.

So, tough year on the economic side of things.

We've got to to increase demand for some of these products to hopefully get the price point back up.

The one bright spot, Todd, is, is cattle.

Cattle prices are, really, really strong right now.

There's nothing that really indicates that it' going to drop off anytime soon.

So, that's the one bright spot.

We produc a lot of cattle here in Alabama.

Most of it's finished out in the Midwest, but our cattle guys are doing okay, but their input costs are elevated as well, right?

One of the trade situation has been really volatile.

Yeah, I guess that impacts things as well.

I mean, like, would we normally be exporting a lot of our, products?

Yeah, yeah.

So, I pick this up from one of our farmers a few years ago, and I never really thought of it in these terms.

But in a typical year, agricultur as a whole in the United States, you want to target an overpowered notion of what you will use, because in that event where you do get into a long ter drought or something like that, you always want to make sure you're producing enough.

What really helps our process is when that extra 1,520% can be exported to people around the world that need our products.

China has been a big player.

Mexico, Canada are our top three trading partners.

There's a little bit of standoff with China right now.

Trying to negotiate what that's going to look like moving forward.

But China is pretty much out of the the U.S.

commodities market right now.

We're hoping that they'll step back in.

But at the same time we've got to be more aggressive in sun and other trade deal in other parts of the country.

We can't continue to rely on China, to be our backstop for prices.

I see.

Yeah.

I think a lot of industries are waiting and seeing what's going to happen in terms of these, these trade negotiations and everything.

Well, let me ask you about this.

You spent a lot of time in Washington over the years.

What happens in Washington?

Absolutely impacts producers here in Alabama.

Update us on where we are with a new farm bill, an it's time for a new farm bill.

But there have been some agricultural policies, kind of coming and going.

Where are we in terms of the farm bill?

Yeah.

Well, what happens in Washington has an impact on what doesn't happen in Washington has an impact.

In this case, we are in our second year of an extension of the 2018 farm bill.

The farm bill is a very large piece of legislation that kind of sets the rules of the game for agriculture, essentially.

Large, large piece of legislation, in this economic period that we're talking about, you know, if Congress hasn't been able to step up and pass a farm bill during these pretty desperate times, makes me worr about the future of farm bills.

But I will say thanks to the, the leadership in both the House and the Senate, they worked with the ag committees and were able to get a lot of our farm bill priorities into the reconciliation packag or the one big, beautiful bill.

Okay.

Some of our priorities, there were things like reference prices.

They do, increase the reference prices, which will have a positive effect on the safety net for our farmers.

So that was encouraging.

I also really need to thank our delegation for for leading the way.

Helpin lead the way back in December, the continuing resolution that passed there was about $10 billion in economic assistance.

Included in that package, as well as $20 billion in disaster funds to help our farmers kind of weather the fact that they don't have that safety net that's historically been there through the farm bill.

So, we appreciate them recognizing where we were last year.

Unfortunately, we're in pretty similar spot again this year.

So we will continue to to advocate and pus to make sure there's resources there to help our farmers get to this next planting season.

Absolutely.

And the delegation has a long history of being bipartisan and really uniting around agriculture policy.

One of those one of those, uniquely Alabama things.

Well, Matt, we're out of time.

Thanks so much for coming on.

And absolutely to some of this.

Hope to have you back.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

We'll be right back.

Since 1997, Alabam Public Television has provided programs, services, and resources to childcare professionals, teachers and parents.

Visit AP tv.org/education to learn more.

Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Some new polling numbers are out this week focused on the 2026 elections here in Alabama.

And joining me next to talk about that is Michael Lowery principal of the Alabama Poll.

Michael, thanks for coming on Capitol Journal.

Todd, thanks for having me.

It's always good to be abl to get back and visit with you.

Well, you've got a lot of people excited this week because we all love polling, right?

We're political animals.

We love the the polling.

But before we get to some of those numbers, talk about the Alabama poll, the history of i and how you have reestablished the Alabama poll.

Well, first part I can say is easy because like you, pollin is a political passion of mine.

You know, I've run a bunch of campaigns, and they're really the lifeblood of what, what you use to tr and become an elected official.

You know, politicians really need that.

But, the history goes back to the early 2000.

You had Bill Canary and, John Anzalone, a big Republican consultant and a Democrat, who went on to do polling for, President Obama.

But, way back in the early 2000, they had established the Alabama poll and were doing polling for companies in the state.

And, I think that kind of fell out in 2007 and, its time had run.

And as I was leaving, Congressman Aderholt this year, I served, a couple of years as his chief of staff spent 15 years on Capitol Hill.

And as I started kind of looking at the next phase of my life, I wanted to build something.

I looked at, you and I have been friends for a long time, and I still remember the conversation we had in the hall at the cannon House office building when you were coming back to Alabama to start Alabama Daily News, and I was just so impressed with your entrepreneurial spirit, you know, because we were government employees, you know, we don't go out and create things.

And, you know, that fascinated me.

And so, as I started looking at my future, it was kind of my opportunity to do that.

So, know I left Congressma Holt in January, left the Hill, started, a lobbying company where I do some DC work.

But then on my, like I said, my political passion has always been the politics campaigns.

And the easiest wa I could see to get involved with that was to to create a subscribe based polling service that really caters towards associations and companies.

And that was the genesis of the Alabama poll.

Well, let's get to some of those numbers.

I wanted to start with the right track, wrong track.

This is the the simple question of asking voters.

Is a Republican primary voters.

Do you think Alabama is on the right track or the wrong track?

And this is interesting because it's not just, you know, U.S.

Senate governor, you know, constitutional offices, the entire legislature is on the ballot.

So this can be kind of a barometer of how the voters are thinking about the jo of the entire state government.

Right.

Yeah.

I think that, Governor Ivey and, the statewide, elected officials, the legislature, you know, folks are happy 65% right now say that Alabama's moving in the on the right track.

Only 25 say it's on the wrong track.

So, you know, what that tells us is the policies, what people are feeling.

And that's something that politicians and elected officials really have to remember.

You kind of have all the reality in the world, but perception is really what you should be concentrating on because it's the perception of the voter.

And they're very concerned about the economy, but overall they feel good abou where we're at and in Alabama.

All right.

Next, I wanted to ask you about favorable unfavorable.

And we've worked campaigns.

It's really important to test not just, you know, a ballot test, meanin who are you going to vote for?

But just do people have a favorable vie of you, unfavorable view of you?

Or sometimes, more importantly, do they know you or not know you?

But some pretty encouraging numbers for our, state's two senators, Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville.

Yeah.

Tremendously popular.

Senator Brett, came out i the polling as being Alabama's most popular, elected official with 76% approving of the job that she's doing and only 15% disapproving.

And remember, these are Republican voters only.

So 76% of Republicans are.

They are, Coach Tuberville, 7423.

So 74% approval, 23 disapproval.

And so this is a good place to point out President Trump.

His numbers in Alabama are just unprecedented.

I have never seen anything like this and that 88 of Republican voters in Alabama say that they approve of the job that the president's doing.

Indeed.

You never see numbers like that.

I didn't, release this number.

So this is a new one tha I'll give you and your audience when we ask people, if President Trump's what his endorsement in a primary would mean, you know, would somebody be more likely to vote for that candidate if they were endorsed by President Trump?

59% said, yes.

You know, and so it's clear that he is going to be key for a lot of these candidates, especially as you go down ballot where people are less well known, they're going to have less money to spend.

You know, Presiden Trump is going to be a kingmaker in a lot of ways, right?

Just in case anybody wondered why, our state's, office, officials are so tightly hewn to, President Trump, his name and his agenda, that number say it all.

Let's go to the Senate race.

US Senate.

It's going to be a hot race.

And what a this was kind of the headline making, part of the poll because these numbers are a little more mature, at least in terms of peopl starting to make up their minds, than than the rest down the ballot.

So you've got Steve Marshall at 37%.

This are you know, people are asked, if the election was held today, who would you vote for?

Republican primary voters, 37% say Steve Marshall, 16% say Barry more, 7% say Jared Hudson.

He's the retired Navy Seal.

40% remain undecided.

Right.

So that's still winning, but 37% for Marshall.

That's a big number.

Steve Marshall right now in a four person primary is already sitting at 37%.

So if I'm running his campaign, I'm looking at it and saying, how am I going to get 13% plus one?

Because all you need under Alabama law is to get the 50 plus one to avoid that runoff.

And to me, that's huge.

And I think Steve is really well positioned to actually avoid the runoff.

Now, if you were to have asked me in a four person primary without any of these polling numbers, yeah, I probably would have gone towards a runoff.

But I think Steve has a pathway to get there without hitting the runoff.

Yeah.

What also struck me when I was reading this poll and kind of seeing the coverage of it.

Right.

It's been around the internet all week.

What I was thinking about, though, is it wasn't just in Alabama.

Right?

We're not the only ones talking about it here in Alabama.

You're in Washington right now.

A lot of folks in Washington are paying attention to this poll specifically the US Senate poll.

And I'm thinking, okay, this race is going to involve a lot of Washington groups, a lot of Washington money coming down.

And so if I'm one of those groups we know who we're talking about.

Some of these groups that tend to get involved in primaries, these numbers might be instructive towards whether you should or should not get involved and who you might back.

Talk about how that might impact this race.

Yeah, because I think that one of the keys in this race is obviously going to be fundraising.

And when you look at it, typically you'r trying to get money out of DC.

Because you're Alabama donors are known.

You can kind of budget for that.

You, you have a general idea of what you're going to take out of, out of Alabama to run your race.

And it's important to note that this is a different race than a statewide or a state race because there are federal limits to how much mone you can race from individuals, how much you can tak from federal PACs, all of that.

So it's not unlimited dollars coming into this.

So any new source of income, contributions that you can open up is key.

And with this being an open Senate race, DC tends to want to stay out of tha until a winner has been decided.

Well, in this case, if Steve's numbers are high enough, that could potentially open up some DC money.

Now you've got Congressma Barry Moore that's there also.

And he has familiarity with that DC community.

But I think that what he's going to be hearing is, you know, Congressman, wit respect, this is an open race.

And we're not goin to get involved at this point.

But to your point, I think that the numbers being what they are and surely they're goin to be making the rounds in DC, there's no telling what this could do for that.

Yeah.

And this is part of what we're looking at.

I mean, Marshall has been in statewide offic for two terms when he, when he, it's actually going to be more than two terms.

That means he's run statewide twice with all the televisio advertising that comes with it.

It gives him a lot more name I.D.. Whereas Barry more, he's been in the southern part of the state, right He ran in the second district.

Now it's the first district, which is significant because that's more than any other congressman.

But it's not statewide.

So is that part of what we're looking at here in terms of Marshall just has a natural built in name I.D.

advantage because he's run statewide before and just been in office for a while.

Yeah, I think tha was clear from his numbers that, when I started looking at the cross tabs and looking at it regionally, Steve, being from North Alabama is going to hav a national advantage up there.

But I was a little bit surprised because, you know, voters tend to forget folks in a congressional race, even if you're a member of Congress that have been elected several times and have advertised heavil on TV, I'm going to expect your your approval rating to be about 33, 35%, roughly.

You know, so, Steve, I was kind of thinking, you know, might be somewhere around there, but in Huntsville, in Birmingham he was at a 55 and 50% approval.

Montgomery, you know where he's going to get more news because that's where the capital is.

That's where he works out up.

He was at 50%.

I mean, even looking at, Congressman Moore's district, he was strong down there.

You know, the attorney Genera Marshall and Congressman Moore are basically tied in the mobil media market about 33, 18 each.

And, I will say that that congressman does enjoy, stronger support in Dothan.

That's where he's from.

That's his community.

So that would be natural.

But again when you're running a campaign, you're looking at where your your largest voting percentage is going to be, you know, where are the voters.

And so if I'm Steve Marshall, I'm going to try and maximize my voters up in North Alabama in the Montgomery area.

And then if I'm tied there in mobile, there's a chance that I could steal a lot of votes down there as well.

Right.

Looking down the ballot, I won't get you to go through every race, because these numbers, really are less mature because, undecided is the winner and by far and all these races really wide open on down the ballot.

So thinking about that, whether it's lieutenant governor, secretary of state, commissioner of Agriculture, go down the list.

What would your advice be to these candidates understanding that the race is wide open?

You know, anybody could have it at this point with what, seven, eight months to go?

What would your advice be as a consultant to some of these down ballot candidates?

Yeah, I mean, again, first you've got to get your fundraising up, right.

You can't do anything withou the dollars to to inform voters who you are, what you believe in and why you're running.

You know, that's that's number one.

So I'm going to be focusing on my fundraising right now.

We think that, you know, May is a long way off.

Well, we're only eight months out from that primary, you know, and essentially you're shutting down about two weeks prior to because all of your media buys have to be done and in the can prior to that.

So really we're looking at probably about, mid April, you know, for that part of the campaign to end, I want to get out there as early as I can.

Todd, you know, I want to be on TV now.

In essence, if I could do i because the key in any race is you want to define yourself before your candidate does it for you or your opponent, rather.

So, you know, I really want the opportunity to tell people who who I am.

Well, look, you mentioned that this Alabam poll is going to be, you know, a regular reoccurring thin and it's done by subscription.

So how do companies, groups, maybe even politicians subscribe, to become, you know, a part of your Alabama poll distribution list?

Yeah.

And I will say that we're really focused on companies and associations.

I don't affiliate with politicians.

I am an independent.

But please visit the website.

It's, WW dot Alabama spelled out Alabama poll.com.

And, we'd love to have folks because I think that the more educated that the business community can be to the issues, again, it's all about information.

How do you get what you are trying to get across?

How do you do that?

You know and information is key to that.

And if you understand what voters are thinking, then you have a better chance to communicate that with your elected officials.

Right?

Well, look, Michael, congratulations on reestablishing this Alabama poll.

You made a lot of waves this week.

And, you know, got a lot of people excited.

So, thanks for reestablishing this.

Thanks for coming on to talk about it.

And again, congratulations.

Thank you to that's our show for this week.

Thanks for watching.

We'll be back next week at the same time right here on Alabama Public Television for our Capital Journal team I'm Todd Stacey.

We'll see you next time.