Politically, Randy Brinson has done it all in Alabama.
The 59-year-old physician has volunteered for campaigns, served as campaign adviser to Republican Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and as health care adviser to Gov. Fob James, started a massively successful non-profit organization to drive voter registration in young adults and founded his own political consulting company, Optimum Impact.
The one void on Brinson's resume was actually being a candidate. With his April announcement he would be seeking the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, that changed.
“We've seen so much corruption and people are disappointed by candidates who say one thing and do something else,” Brinson told the Franklin Free Press last week. “We see people talking about creating jobs who've never created a job or handled payroll. We hear candidates say to repeal Obamacare who have no experience or understanding of health care.
“I feel I have the experience to do that. My children are grown, my business is doing okay and at the end of the day I believe I can articulate myself to where voters will want to hire me. Voters are like the board of directors for the state of Alabama and they're electing a CEO who needs the knowledge and experience to turn around the company. We need a businessman who can address the issues rather than a politician who just talks about the issues,” Brinson added.
Brinson is a gastroenterologist who has practiced in Montgomery since 1987. He and his wife Pamela have three grown sons and two granddaughters. Brinson is a licensed lay minister, a former trustee of the University of Mobile, a past board member on the state board of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and, until recently, the president of the Christian Coalition of Alabama.
Brinson has traveled internationally on numerous trade missions for Alabama in cooperation with Alabama's Agricultural Commissioner John McMillan. He spent 10 days earlier this year in Zambia working to secure lands to establish a network for Alabama farmers to work with their Zambian counterparts, helping open Zambia and Africa to Alabama goods.
He also formed Redeem the Vote in 2003. Redeem the Vote is a non-profit organization geared toward driving voter registration among young adults. Nearly 80,000 people were registered through the organization during the 2004 campaign, more than all other faith-based voter drives combined.
After Brinson started WAY-FM, a Christian music station in Montgomery, in 1999, the small station quickly grew to where it received the second-most donations of the entire 44-station network of Christian music across the country.
“We hosted four different groups at a Christian concert and had such a tremendous turnout we had to turn kids away,” Brinson said. “My wife and I thought what a great place to get kids registered to vote, so we formed Redeem the Vote as a way to get people registered to vote. We've partnered with more than 50 Christian artists and many Christian radio networks to do public service announcements encouraging people to vote,” he added.
Brinson has stepped down, at least through the Senate campaign, from his positions with the Christian Coalition and Redeem the Vote.
On the heels of recent political corruption in Alabama, including Gov. Robert Bentley, Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard and the removal of Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore from office, every candidate in the race trumpets his or her integrity. So why should voters believe Brinson when he touts the same message?
“I'm someone who actually gets things done. Mike Hubbard tried to use his office for personal gain. I'm not going to Washington for personal gain,” Brinson said. “My income would go in the opposite direction. When you have candidates running who see that as a way to get more power, money or influence, and their campaigns are propped up by special interests, they're ripe for corruption.
“I'm someone with business experience who doesn't need that special interest money and I want to change the complexion of how we work for the people of Alabama in the senate,” he added.
Brinson has been described as a 'Christian activist' and he's concerned how government and today's culture are “pushing people of faith to remain silent about their faith,” according to his website, www.votebrinson.com.
“Nobody wants to create a theocracy with only one state religion and belief. That said, our faith forms who we are. For example, if we promote legislation protecting life and restricting abortion that's because life is valuable and I think that's good policy,” Brinson said. “Most people believe life is precious. I believe in a culture of life where every person has value, worth and a God-given set of abilities and gifts and that we promote their value so they can be everything they're supposed to be on earth. It's very hard to dismiss as not good policy if it promotes a culture that espouses those values,” he added.
Brinson said he's seen first-hand the “destructive effects of Obamacare” on patients, doctors and hospitals. He will go to Washington with the goal of repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and he'll work to allow market-based insurance plans to be sold across state lines.
“In addition to allowing the purchase of insurance across state lines, we need to continue the high-risk pools that have been set up and encourage those people to transition out from those pools by staying on medications and working to stay healthy,” Brinson said.
He also advocates creating regional care organizations within each state and the short-term remedy of using university and teaching programs, including medical students, nurse practitioners and nursing students, to provide care under the supervision of training physicians.
Primaries are set for August 15, with a runoff date of September 26. The general election is December 12.
