Meet the Pro-Marijuana, Pro-LGBT Rights Truck Driver Running for Governor of Alabama
Childs answered “Roll Tide” when asked the first question that Alabama politicans usually get on the campaign trail. Photo: Jason Childs
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Childs answered “Roll Tide” when asked the first question that Alabama politicans usually get on the campaign trail. Photo: Jason Childs
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These are strange political times in America today. So much so that an ex-evangelical preacher and current truck driver is running on a progressive Democratic platform for the governorship of one of the reddest states in the nation.
Gadsden native Jason Childs says that both political parties have failed blue- and middle-class collar families nationwide. And he wants to help return the Democratic party to its labor-oriented and populist roots by running for the Alabama’s governorship on a host of progressive issues: Childs says he is for civil rights for all citizens, including Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender rights, favors legalizing marijuana, supports the Second Amendment and wants to repeal Alabama’s current tax on groceries – a tax he says unfairly targets poor and working class families in the state.
It’s a strange platform considering the 46-year-old Childs’ background: He attended conservative Christian schools Liberty University and eventually graduated from the Florida Bible College and began a career as an evangelical, Southern Baptist preacher at the age of 17. But, the domination doesn’t allow divorcees to preach, and after a too-early marriage failed, Childs found himself casting around for another profession.
In 2006, Childs decided he wanted to see America. He obtained his CDL and hit the road as a long-haul trucker. And it was during his trips across the country that his world view was challenged and eventually changed. “I talked to other drivers at truckstops, and ate with workers on warehouse docks, and I realized the reality of life for working- and middle-class Americans was much different then I’d been taught,” he said. “Their struggles are no being addressed by either party, nationally. And the Republican take-over of Alabama …Read the rest of this story
