Less than a year into the second administration of President Donald Trump, Republican candidates for state and national office in 2026 are already sounding a sense of urgency that the clock is running out.
That emerged as a recurrent theme among a group of nine candidates who spoke Monday at a meeting of the Mobile County Republican Executive Committee. The nine represented a wide range of offices: Mobile County Sheriff Paul Burch; U.S. Rep. Barry Moore and Ala. Attorney General Steve Marshall, who are running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Tommy Tuberville; Jerry Carl, who’s running to regain a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives; Ala. Lt. Gov. candidate Nicole Wadsworth; former Alabama Supreme Court justice Jay Mitchell, who’s running to follow Marshall as the state’s attorney general; Ala. Secretary of State hopeful Caroleene Dobson. Two candidates for the position of Alabama agricultural and industries commissioner also were represented, with Christina Woerner McInnis speaking on her own behalf and campaign manager Willie Gray speaking for Ala. Sen. Jack Williams.
Several candidates stressed that when the 2026 elections are settled, Trump will be halfway through his term.
“The one thing that I have to do in the United States Senate is to be able to make sure that we get the agenda of Donald Trump across the finish line for his last two years,” said Marshall. “To be that vote and to be that leader that will make sure and stand tall with him to deliver the mandate that the American people gave to him through this most recent election.”
Moore spent the majority of his time on his record, stressing that he had shown himself to be a bedrock-solid supporter of Trump-backed bills and that could be counted on to keep it up. “In ‘26, y’all, when this election happens, we’re only going to have 24 months of Donald Trump left in the White House,” he said.
Carl picked up the thread. “As I think Barry mentioned earlier, we’re going to have two years left with Donald Trump,” he said. “You better find the most conservative Republican you can get and back in this race, and I think I’m the person for that.”
Most candidates for state office focused on matters closer to home. But Mitchell said he’d been energized by the experience of attending Trump’s inauguration.
“I came away from that stir and I came home and I told Elizabeth, I said, you know, sweetie, for my whole life, I just turned 49, my whole life as a Christian, as a conservative, we’ve been on defense,” he said. “We’ve been on defense against our government and these D.C. bureaucrats, against the culture, against the media, against a lot of the junk coming out of colleges and universities. And for the first time in my life, we’re not on defense. With President Trump winning reelection, the mandate that he is carrying from the American people, we are on offense. And our enemies, culturally, economically, and otherwise, they are fleeing.
“And under President Trump, with his leadership, it is now an opportunity to go and get what I call generational conservative victories,” Mitchell continued. “Not just victories for the next four years or the next eight years, but Lord willing, victories that our kids and our grandkids and our great grandkids will be able to live into.”
As examples of issues where such generational victories stood to be won, Mitchell mentioned “boys and girls sports,” an apparent reference to transgender athletes; “the problem of left-wing violence” and fighting against “DEI mandates that undermine merit and common sense.”