We have to stop this with our votes | RODNEY WALKER

There is a campaign video circulating in our state right now. A candidate for one of the highest offices in the land takes a piece of paper with a corporation's name on it, throws it in the air, and shoots it with a firearm. He calls it campaign content. He posts it for applause.

I will not name him. This is not about one man. This is about a sickness in our politics that has gotten worse every year, and if we do not say something about it now, it is going to get someone killed.

In December of 2024, the chief executive of a health insurance company was shot dead on a sidewalk in New York City. He was walking to a meeting. He had a wife. He had children. The man who pulled the trigger became a folk hero in certain corners of the internet because he had decided, on his own, that an American business was a legitimate target for violence.

That is the world we are living in. That is the climate every public statement is now made into.

And in that climate — in this exact moment — a candidate for the United States Senate from the State of Alabama looks into a camera, points a gun at a piece of paper meant to represent a corporation, and pulls the trigger. For votes. For likes. For a moment of attention in a primary.

I have carried a weapon in service to my community. I flew helicopters with the sheriff's department. I run a business that puts fuel in cars and trucks across this state every single day. I know what a firearm is, and I know what it is not. It is not a prop. It is not a punchline. It is not something a serious person waves around to score a point in a campaign ad.

There are real people who work for the company on that piece of paper. They live in our state. They have families. Their children go to school here. The man who runs that company has a name and an address. So do every one of his executives. So do the linemen who climb poles in storms to keep the lights on. When a candidate for federal office aims a firearm at the symbol of their employer and calls it a campaign message, he is not just being unserious. He is doing something dangerous, and he knows it, and he does it anyway because it works on a screen.

That is the part that should bother every Alabamian, regardless of party. Not that he is angry about power bills — we are all angry about power bills. Not that he is willing to call out a regulated utility — plenty of us have done that, in proper forums, with our names attached. The problem is that he decided the way to do it was with a bullet, on camera, for clicks. He decided the cost of that decision — to the climate of our politics, to the safety of working people, to the dignity of the office he is asking us to send him to — was less important than the attention it would get him.

That is a candidate who will do anything for a vote. And a candidate who will do anything for a vote is not someone you want anywhere near a Senate seat.

Public service is a serious thing. The United States Senate is a serious place. The work that needs to be done for Alabama — lower energy costs, secure borders, a federal government that lives within its means, an economy that works for the people who actually build it — is serious work. It does not get done by stunts. It gets done by people who can be trusted with consequences.

I am asking the voters of Alabama to think about consequences this time. Think about what we are teaching the next person who watches that video and decides to go one step further. Think about the executive walking into a building somewhere in this country tomorrow morning. Think about what kind of person you want representing this state when the cameras are off and the real decisions are being made.

We have to stop this. Not with another video. Not with another stunt. With our votes. On May 19, Alabama has a chance to send a message that we are still a serious people, that we still know the difference between a campaign and a circus, and that we will not reward politicians who treat the safety of our neighbors as a prop.

That is the message I am asking you to send. That is the kind of senator I am asking to be.

Rodney Walker is a businessman, helicopter pilot, and former sheriff's department aviator. He is a candidate for the United States Senate from Alabama. The Alabama Republican primary is Tuesday, May 19, 2026.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: We have to stop this with our votes | RODNEY WALKER

Reporting by Rodney Walker, Special to the Advertiser / Montgomery Advertiser

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