Ryan Cagle is everything we all say we want in a candidate for public office.
He’s engaged with the local community and plugged in like few candidates you’ll ever meet. He’s mostly apolitical when he speaks, never focusing on partisan rhetoric or tired talking points derived from national issues that have been audience tested and polled repeatedly. He’s an ordained minister who speaks with kindness and compassion, and he encourages dialogue and an exchange of ideas.
His campaign for office has almost exclusively focused on aiding the working poor in Walker, Fayette, Lamar, Jefferson and Tuscaloosa counties. He’s engaged with unions and workers. He’s talked about saving local hospitals. He’s led the charge against a Walker County Sheriff’s Office that has proven to be horribly mismanaged and corrupt.
But here’s the thing: Voters in District 5 will go to the polls today (Tuesday) to elect a new senator in a special election, and Cagle very likely won’t win.
His opponent in the race is current state Rep. Matt Woods, and Woods is probably a perfectly fine human being. He runs an auto dealership – a family business started by his father – and he has a very nice looking family. His wife operates a nonprofit that assists families that have lost children, and honestly, I can’t imagine a more worthwhile cause.
So, we’re not talking about bad people here. On either side.
But Woods also promised to “never back down from a fight,” and then did so repeatedly. He ducked debate after debate and forum after forum with Cagle, choosing to not engage or exchange ideas.
In interviews and at other gatherings, though, Woods has leaned into the national talking points. He declined to answer questions posed by the Alabama Reflector on how he would deal with federal budget cuts that might slash hundreds of millions from Alabama’s Medicaid and SNAP programs, harming the state’s most vulnerable people. When asked about the idea of doing away with the U.S. Department of Education, Woods said something about replacing it with “common sense, Alabama-based education,” which is a way of saying something while saying absolutely nothing.
Cagle, in the meantime, has dozens of ideas of what he’d do and how we could be better served by politicians who actually focused on the real needs of the working class populations they serve. He talks about the “stewardship” of tax dollars and how a handful of people in the state maintain control and keep hosing the people who pay most of the state’s bills.
He’s right, of course. And you’ve probably said something just like that about a million times, as you’ve watched money flow upward and never trickle down.
But it doesn’t matter.
Because Cagle is a Democrat. And Woods is a Republican.
Doesn’t matter how much better Cagle’s ideas are. Doesn’t matter that he knows the community. Doesn’t matter that he’s a decent human with an approach to governance that is exactly what we all say we want. Doesn’t matter that one candidate flatly refused to debate.
This is what’s killing us. It’s what’s killed us for decades now, including when Democrats were in charge of this state.
When voters go to the polls and blindly vote for party over candidates, you get awful candidates and worse lawmakers. They don’t fear retribution for dumb legislation or bad votes. They don’t worry about pleasing the masses, only the financial benefactors.
That’s where we are in Alabama.
It’s why gambling continues to fail, despite overwhelming support among voters. It’s why an overtime tax break for working folks was repealed, despite it being one of the most popular pieces of legislation in recent history. It’s why, flatly against the wishes of the people, hemp products are now illegal and hundreds of small businesses across the state are going to go out of business in about a week.
Ryan Cagle is everything you say you want in a candidate. He’s none of what you say you hate in candidates.
But he won’t win because you’re more concerned with the party. And you’ll continue to get exactly what you vote for.
