I grew up in the country, a little house of 1000 square feet, no central air, my dad had a country store. Had a gristmill and a small equipment dealership. He struggled to take care of us through that process and managed to get out of it is shirt. I worked construction two summers, sold dictionaries, did other things to work my way through college. Great day, i find myself in politics, studying the issues. My wife and i met at college and got involved in republican politics. It has been an adventure for me. I want to congratulate Tommy Tuberville. He ran a really firm, solid race. He was focused on his goal and on winning. He had a plan to do so and he was able to do so. He is our republican nominee. We must stand behind him in november. So ive been thinking about where ive been in my life. My wife and i have had an incredible adventure. As teenagers, we established a Huntington College young republican club, the first ever at that college. We had two members only of the alabama legislature. We were present at the creation of the modern Republican Party in alabama. I have watched it grow over the years, see it prosper. We stood up to the demagogue democrats, stood up to the good old boy club, we stood for principal, for good values, good government, clean officials doing the right thing every day, working in the public interest. That vision, those principles, of law and constitutionalism produced a growing party and it grew until, at this point, every statewide elected official in alabama is a republican. Except one. Doug jones. That has to end and that is what i believe will be happening in the weeks to come. Ours is an honorable state. A state of hardworking, frugal, honest, churchgoing, frugal, conservative republicans now. Doug jones does not need to be our voice in washington. Doug jones seeks to have Chuck Schumer be the majority leader in the United States senate. He wishes to see the policies of nancy pelosi prevail over conservative alabama principles. It is an extraordinary thing, he has used the platform of alabama voters to advance a liberal, democratic agenda too long. That must end. The stakes are high. This Party Politics in the senate is of tremendous importance, as most of you know, as a result of the fact that every committee is chaired by the party that has the majority in the congress. So my view about things at this point in history is that the Political Parties have not been sufficiently sensitive to, understanding of, and responsive to the legitimate wishes of the American People. I have come to that belief both more strongly in recent years. Its really why i chose to make this race. I thought i might have the ability to contribute in some way to the future of our country, in that the Republican Party has the greatest opportunity to build a leading majority in america. But to do so, they need to be more attuned to the values of the people of our country. For example, immigration. The American People are not against immigration, but they want a lawful system and they want the kind of immigration that serves the national interests, and this does not become a mechanism by which their wages are pulled down and their ability to find a decent job is reduced substantially. They are right about that. Theyre exactly right about that but powerful forces out there on the other side, they want more labor and cheaper labor. Thats just what certain businesses do. Thats what they always seek. Secondly, i think the American People have been right to resist this religious freetrade idea. That no matter how bad a competitor cheats you, china sells products to the United States below cost, closing american factories, laying off hundreds of american workers, these religious freetraders think we should send them a thank you note because you can get a few cents cheaper at walmart or one of our other stores. American people are not happy with that. American people are not happy that weve allowed china to dominate our trade situation and they have massive trade we are not happy with that. Thats wrong. And they think weve got involved in too many wars that dont have an end, have not served our national interest, and have not helped the people we thought we were trying to help. In all those areas, the American People are right in my opinion. Theyre essentially correct, and i think its time for this Republican Party to listen to the donald trump agenda because he has talked about those things frankly and openly, and i think they were huge factors in his ability to win that past election. And if he gets our message and stays on it, stays on those positions, i think he will be in a position to come back and when win this election. We have borders in our country. We have a constitution that applies within our border and we need to understand, we are a nationstate and our government leaders should be protecting the interests of the American People. We expect ceos protect the interest of the stockholders, government officials should protect the interests of their citizens. It is that simple. Too often, we have allowed the focus to be on gdp, on growth, on wall street, issues like that and not enough on the struggle of that single mom who has to buy four tires for her old car, it is going to cost 600 and she doesnt have it. It has to go on a credit card that charges 25 interest. This is a world that most americans live in, we need to be more sensitive to it, not think and i think they are right about where we are. I believe that is good. Those are the kinds of issues we should be advancing. I want to see our congress do so and i think the party that does so will be the party that can govern in the years to come. I cant finish my remarks tonight without thanking my family. I thought my wife would be up here with me and i got excited and ran up here and got away from me. Within a month, we will celebrate our 51st anniversary. It is a remarkable thing. I would say thank you. [applause] it is a Remarkable Partnership we have had and she has been patient with me. My three children, mary abigail, whose husband is in the navy, ruth is here with our four grandkids, her husband is out of town at work today, but four of our girls are here, and my son sam in birmingham now, hes got four. So we have eight of them. Eight of the 10 here tonight. Our oldest just had her 13th birthday. Come on up. Thats good. Come on up. I want to just say how much i appreciate come on. Come on. So they have been part of this, they have been helping me in this campaign. Helping me in this campaign, giving us advice, finding on the internet, doing the kinds of things that made us successful. I want to thank our campaign team, they have worked their hearts out. They have given their full efforts to this and we feel like we have been able to make progress at the very end, but it wasnt enough in these last days. I really appreciate that team and all the work they have done for me. I can never thank them enough. [applause] i feel like i let them down, they worked so hard and we couldnt get it going. So thank you all for that support. Let me say this about the president and our relationship. I leave with no regrets. I was honored to serve the people of alabama and the senate and i was extraordinarily proud of the accomplishments we had as attorney general. On recusal, i followed the law. I did the right thing and i saved the president s bacon in the process. Any other actions to squelch an investigation in that environment would not have worked, it would have been a catastrophe. Im glad it finally ended after a long time and the president has been cleared. I leave elected office with my integrity intact, i feel good about it, i hold my head high, i took the road less traveled, we didnt try didnt try to excuse myself or get in a fight or undermine the leader of our country and the great work he has to do. That was an honorable path, i believe. Although this chapter of my life is closed, we must all stand up for what is right. Do it all the right way. Alabama is worth fighting for. America is worth fighting for. We will keep it that. [applause] so once again to the people of alabama, i want to say how much i thank you. I think you for letting this country boy have the opportunity to be United States attorney for 12 years under president reagan and bush, being able to be attorney general of alabama, being able to serve 20 years in the senate, and not even have an opponent last time. I ran unopposed. The only senator in the country that had no opposition. Then to be able to serve in the department of justice in a way we had one issue that was controversial, day after day, we populated that department with people who believed in the constitution, who believed in religious freedom, believed in freedom of speech, belief and following the law, believed in civil rights, believed in law enforcement, and packing our police and that is more important today than it has ever been. It is a great honor for me to have served you, it is a sense of satisfaction that i complete that service. I tell you with all sincerity, it is my honor to have been able to serve. I hope that this state will continue to be prosperous and grow in the way that it has over the last number of years. I look forward to helping Tommy Tuberville win this race. It is important for alabama, but also important for america. Thank you all and god bless. [applause] [inaudible] i did, we had a nice conversation and i was pleased to talk to him. Thank you all. Thank you all and god bless. Next, we hear from Tommy Tuberville declaring victory last night in alabamas republican primary runoff for u. S. Senate. He spoke to a group of supporters in montgomery, alabama for about 10 minutes