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With the Alabama Senate primary election right around the corner in March, Republican candidates like Congressman Bradley Byrne are hot on the campaign trail.

Byrne, a Mobile native, is currently serving his fourth term in the U.S. House of Representatives and is one of the seven Republican candidates running to be Alabama’s next U.S. Senator.

“We are less than five weeks out from the primary, so this is a critical time plus this is a very important part of the state economically,” Byrne said. “Sometimes in a great big federal government we forget rural America and rural Alabama, and we should never do that. Whether its infrastructure, helping with expansion of your airport, working with rural hospitals, rural broadband or rural education. It is very important to me to me that we make sure the federal government doesn’t forget that, and we talk about it all the time and work on it all the time.”   

On Wednesday, Byrne spent the day touring Chambers County and meeting with city and community leaders.

“When we go into an area, we like to really go in depth and meet as many people as we can,” Byrne said. “It’s great for us, we learn a lot about that community, and we get to meet a lot of people.”

Byrne said he is setting himself apart from the rest of the candidates by visiting all 67 counties in Alabama.

“I’ve been to all 67 counties and I am the only one that has a presence in all 67 counties,” Byrne said. “I’m telling people in Alabama, whether it’s through television, radio ads, digital ads or these personal appearances, that I’m the conservative Christian fighter in the race. I’m the one standing up with President Trump, actually doing it and not just talking about it, and people seem to be very receptive to that in the last few weeks.”

Byrne said it is time that there is a senator in Alabama that votes the “Alabama way.”

“We made a mistake in my judgment in 2017,” Byrne said. “We elected a guy named Doug Jones to be our senator and I have nothing world against him personally. I know him, and we’ve been friends a long time, but he does not vote the way Alabama is expecting him to vote. We need a senator who will vote our way, who will be against gun control, will be against abortion, will be for building the wall, who will vote to confirm conservative judges like Judge [Brett] Kavanaugh.”

If elected, Byrne has major goals on both a national and state level.

“First, nationally, I want to help President Trump continue to turn around the defense of the country,” Byrne said.

“Secondly, I would like to stand with him as a senator and confirm these conservative judges. Thirdly, I do think we need a national infrastructure program, which is something he talked about four years ago. And we need to do something about the cost of healthcare. I hear that everywhere.”

Byrne also said he wants to work on the immigration policy and making sure the wall gets built.

On a state level, Byrne said turning around the defense of the country benefits Alabama due to the state having locations like Redstone Arsenal, Army Depo, Maxwell Air Force Base and more.

“Even though Columbus is just across the river, Phenix City and other places benefit from what we’re doing at Fort Benning,” Byrne said. “Working on defense in general helps all of those places that are major economic engines for the state.”

Byrne is also taking a stance on what effects healthcare plans have on rural communities.

“A lot of our rural areas or hospitals are hanging on by a thread, and I think part of the problem there is with federal government reimbursing them,” Byrne said.

At the end of the primary, Byrne believes there will be a run off between him and Jeff Sessions.

“We intend to press even harder in the run often we have the primary,” Byrne said. “I think President Trump and his unhappiness with Jeff Sessions will be a major issue in that race, but we’ve got to get through March first.”