Opioid Crisis
Forging a path forward to address the opioid epidemic in Alabama has been a hallmark of my first year in office. Last summer, Governor Kay Ivey appointed me as co-chair of her Alabama Opioid Overdose & Addiction Council. After six months of in-depth research and discussion by the Council, we reported our recommendations to Governor Ivey. Now, we are getting to work on the implementation of those recommendations.

As the Council’s work highlights, a multi-faceted problem requires creative and diverse solutions. The partnership we have established between law enforcement, mental health, and public health is foundational, but this alliance must be expanded to include both the faith and education communities.

Through my position as the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of this state, it is my unique responsibility to ensure we are effectively dealing with the trafficking of both pharmaceuticals and illegal drugs. We are ramping up our ability to combat this trafficking through increased coordination and data-sharing with federal partners and providing new resources to our local partners through our new cybercrime lab. Because much of the trafficking of the most dangerous opioids--fentanyl and Carfentanil--occur online, our new lab is a critical tool in this fight.

Immigration
Illegal immigration is a growing problem for our state. It is the government’s first responsibility to enforce the law and ensure the safety of our citizens. Stopping the flow of illegal immigrants through our borders is the first step in achieving that goal. I am also committed to the prosecution of illegal immigrants who commit crimes in Alabama.

In my first year in office, I have taken these steps to combat illegal immigration:

Fought for President Trump’s travel ban designed to protect all Americans from the influx of immigrants from countries that pose a security risk to the U.S. Joined President Trump’s effort to put an end to sanctuary cities Demanded an end to Obama’s executive amnesty and insisted that the rule of law be upheld.

Federal Overreach
Our Founders knew that an out-of-control federal government would be the enemy of freedom. That’s why the Constitution gives “few and defined” powers to the federal government and reserves for the States “all the objects which...concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people…” This balance of power, federalism, was greatly disrupted during the Obama Administration but with a new Administration in place, we have an opportunity to reclaim our state sovereignty.

Alabama has been uniquely affected by federal overreach on issues affecting private property. I am currently leading a battle in the U.S. Supreme Court against a federal regulation that would give the government power to use any private land that the federal government deemed necessary to protect an endangered species. In the process of this lawsuit, we have also worked successfully with the Trump Administration to get these burdensome rules rolled back.

I agree with the late Justice Scalia, “it won’t work if we don’t believe in federalism.”

Violent Crime
Violent crime in Alabama is at a 20-year high. In fact, data shows us that a violent crime is committed every 21 minutes across our state. That’s why I launched my “Initiative on Violent Crime” with the slogan “Reclaim. Restore. Revive.” I am determined to reclaim our neighborhoods from the scourge of violent crime, restore the rule of law, and ultimately, see these communities revived.

We are accomplishing these goals through targeting our worst-hit areas, establishing strategic partnerships with federal, state, and local law enforcement, renewing investments in crime-fighting resources and increasing training opportunities for those on the front lines.

We are also listening to the needs of victims of violent crime. As a result, we advocated for and secured passage of the Fair Justice Act to ensure that capital murderers are limited in their ability to file endless frivolous appeals that cause families to relive their horror again and again, while losing faith in the justice system.

We are having great success and are dedicated to winning this fight. With our friend and partner, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, at the helm of our federal crime-fighting agencies and a career prosecutor leading the Alabama Attorney General’s Office, criminals should be on notice. We will not tolerate this menace to our citizens.

Human Trafficking
Not only is human trafficking a global tragedy, it is heartbreakingly present even in our own state of Alabama. It is hard for us to fathom that such a vile practice as slavery exists in our midst. Traffickers target those who are most vulnerable, using threats and torture to wear their victims down and render them powerless to seek help. I stand ready to prosecute these cases and see this horrible crime punished. I am also fighting to ensure that those in law enforcement have the training and resources that they need to deal with these horrific crimes. Together we can save victims, one at a time, and reduce the terrible suffering caused by trafficking.

2nd Amendment
I took an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution and to vigilantly protect the rights of the people, including the Second Amendment. Our Second Amendment rights are constantly under siege from the liberals and their footholds in federal agencies. I have demonstrated my commitment to protect the rights of gun owners in federal and state courts and to push back on unnecessary restrictions on gun manufacturers. I will continue to be a champion of the Second Amendment on behalf of all Alabamians.

Ethics
Cracking down on government corruption is vital to public confidence and the welfare of our our state. I have worked to bring more transparency to government by building on the Alabama Ethics Act. We need honest people to serve and we must close loopholes that would allow for corrupt individuals to profit from their government service. It is my highest priority to ensure that those who serve the people of Alabama do so with the utmost integrity.

Standing up for Life
We must speak for those who cannot speak for themselves--we must fight for the unborn. I have a career-long record of fighting for life in the courts and in the legislature. One of the biggest victories in my professional career has been drafting and advocating for the Brody Act—a law that makes it possible to prosecute offenders for two crimes if they kill or injure an unborn child during an attack on the unborn child’s mother. After that law passed, I became the first prosecutor to secure a death sentence (for a man who had murdered his pregnant wife) under the Brody Act. Amazingly, when this landmark case was on appeal to the Alabama Supreme Court, I had the privilege of defending that conviction in my role as Attorney General.

I have also fought for and won First Amendment protections for pro-life speech, defended Alabama’s law on parental consent for abortions, supported other states’ laws that would prohibit late-term and discriminatory abortions and battled the ACLU to ban the gruesome practice of dismemberment abortions. ^[22]

Republican lawyer and former criminal court judge, Chess Bedsole spent the last couple of years working with President Donald Trump and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, first to secure the White House and then serving as senior counsel to the incoming Department of Justice. During this time, Chess worked to rewrite Obama executive orders and implement the policies of Trump and Sessions. His focus included securing the border, taking unnecessary regulations off the backs of our military, removing barriers to the 2nd amendment freedoms of gun owners and protecting the right to life.

A former criminal court judge in North Alabama, Chess has a record of swift justice. He supported law enforcement efforts to fight drug sales and worked with local charities and churches to help victims of domestic violence. He also cut costs to taxpayers by requiring work or school of young, able-bodied, nonviolent offenders.

Chess is running for Attorney General to aggressively lower violent crime in our cities, cut illegal drug sales in the state, empower our law enforcement community with more resources and less red tape and to restore integrity to the office.

Chess has a long history of fighting for conservative values and a resume built on hard work over decades.
Best known for his legal work helping to ensure the success of Republican candidates in high profile races, he spent time working for President George W. Bush after initially joining the litigation team on the Gore v. Bush Florida recount. Additionally, Chess challenged two Alabama recounts, leading to the defeats of Democrats Don Siegelman and Roger Bedford.

Chess graduated from Emory University in Atlanta and earned his law degree from the University of Alabama. Born in Mobile, he grew up in Alabama. Chess and his wife Jenna live in Birmingham with their two daughters, ages 7 and 11. Lifelong Methodists, they are members of Canterbury United Methodist Church.^[22]

2nd Amendment
I am a strong supporter of the Second Amendment and our right to bear arms. I’ll fight against any state or federal legislation that seeks to undo or preempt Alabama’s open and concealed-carry laws.

As a federal prosecutor my office prosecuted hundreds of federal firearm violations with ATF and local law enforcement. This reduced violent crime, which is now on the rise. I’ll work to enforce current laws – not add new restrictions to law abiding Alabamians – to keep guns out of the hands of terrorists, criminals and the mentally ill.

As a lifelong gun owner, hunter and NRA member, I’ll fight any move by liberal Democrats and Republicans to limit our rights to own a gun and defend our families.

Corruption Ends Here
I have focused much of my 20-year career as a state and federal prosecutor on fighting corruption in government. As United States Attorney for 31 counties of north Alabama, I formed the North Alabama Public Corruption Task Force with former Alabama AG Bill Pryor and obtained 140 federal corruption convictions and was named a “Top 10 Prosecutor in the U. S.” by Corporate Fraud Reporter.

As Chief Deputy Attorney General for Alabama from 2015-2017, I worked on the prosecution team that prosecuted Speaker Mike Hubbard, as well as led the grand jury investigation into former Governor Robert Bentley. I increased resources to prosecute public corruption in the Alabama Attorney General’s Office by more than 200%. If elected to serve as your Attorney General I will continue that work to follow the facts and hold corrupt government employees and officials accountable to their oaths of office.

Corruption creates an unlevel playing field for law abiding businesses and is costly to taxpayers. I will work to clarify Alabama’s Ethics Law and hold entities accountable to the Alabama Open Records Act because sunshine is a disinfectant. Public service is not about private gain. Integrity and ethical behavior matters and no one is above the law.

Stop Illegal Immigration and Sanctuary cities
I stand with President Trump as a strong supporter of enforcing our immigration laws! The U.S. is a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws designed to protect our borders and our citizens. I oppose sanctuary city policies that ignore immigration laws and release criminal aliens back into a community. This liberal policy has illegally released thousands of criminals into American communities. It puts law-abiding citizens and undocumented immigrants at risk.

I will fight against any movement of a city or county in Alabama to become a sanctuary jurisdiction, and that risk your safety by becoming one.

Opioid Crisis
Fact: In 2017, 60,000 Americans died from drug overdoses and two-thirds were linked to opioids. Two deaths a day occur in Alabama due to an overdose. Alabama has the highest number of opioid prescriptions per person than any other state!

Almost everyone in Alabama knows someone whose family has been impacted by opioid addiction or an overdose. As a prosecutor and nurse I know we cannot prosecute our way out of this crisis. It will require a multi-discipline approach of prevention through education, medication-assisted treatment, and law enforcement.

Research shows that 40% of people who take opioids for more than 30 days become addicted. I’m proud to have successfully advocated for mandatory controlled substance prescribing education for physicians starting January 1, 2018, and mandatory checks that trigger the Alabama Prescription Drug Monitoring Program database in order to combat doctor shopping and drug diversion.

If we do not make a positive impact now, we can expect an increase in ‘pills to needles’ abuse. Heroin addiction will continue to rise as well because the DEA links 80% of heroin addiction to prescription drug abuse. Fentanyl deaths will continue to rise. There were 247 drug overdoses in Jefferson County, Alabama alone in 2016, an increase of 12% over 2015. The trend in this public health issue is alarming and touches people of all ages, but especially people in their 30-50s, which yields a lot of ‘collateral damage’ with the number of children impacted.

Pro- Life
I oppose abortion. Life begins at conception and should be protected. I am committed to protecting the rights of unborn children except in cases of rape, incest or threat to the life of the mother.

As a mother of three daughters and a nurse, I care about the health of the unborn baby and the mother. I support women’s safety through education and funding of community health centers, so they have real choices and can avoid unwanted pregnancies.

As Attorney General I would support and defend the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, to prohibit abortion after 20 weeks. I will fight liberal attempts to allow abortion on demand and fight to repeal the Hyde Amendment, which bars federal funding of abortion.

Federalist - States' Rights
As Attorney General, I will fight to protect our States’ rights, under the Tenth Amendment from federal government overreach. This includes fighting for our religious liberties that have been under constant attack from liberals and out –of- state groups. We cannot allow big government policies and the liberal agenda to supersede the laws that Alabama lawmakers have put in place and which reflect our values.

It is the responsibility of the state to enforce the Constitution to manage the federal government. While serving as Alabama’ Chief Deputy Attorney General in 2016, we fought and won an injunction against Obama’s transgender bathroom mandate that would have required Alabama schools to allow students access to restrooms and locker rooms based on their gender “identity” rather than their sex, or we would have lost federal funding. We must push back against these liberal agenda items that seek to destroy the moral fiber of our country.

“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government – lest it come to dominate our lives and interests”.

-Patrick Henry

Stop Human Trafficking
Fact: Human trafficking is the second most profitable illegal activity in the world and the superhighways – I-20 and I-65 – run through Alabama making it a target rich environment for this form of modern day slavery.

I have prosecuted sex trafficking cases and I know it is happening to children and adults here in Alabama. In the past 10 years, over 377 victims have been identified where the use of force, fraud or coercion to get labor or commercial sex act has occurred.

I will work with state, local and federal law enforcement officials to provide training and prosecution to combat human trafficking. I will work to form an alliance with schools and private businesses to increase awareness of the issue and to prevent and detect trafficking along our interstate highway corridors. ^[22]

Taking Alabama Back from Crime
Violent crime in Alabama has been on the rise. It is the job of the Attorney General to keep Alabama’s families and communities safe. In 2010 (the last year I served as Attorney General), violent crime in our state hit a twenty year low. Over the last eight years, it has been on the rise until, last year it was at historic highs. In 2016, Alabama was the third most murderous state in America.

Alabamians have every reason to expect that the Attorney General, the chief law enforcement officer in the state, will implement policies, propose new laws, and enforce the law in a way that sends a message to violent criminals that, if they threaten the peace in our state, they will face swift and sure consequences. Using experience & proven policies will not only allow Alabama to, once again, win the war against violent crimes to keep law abiding citizens safe, but it is also the most certain way to TAKE ALABAMA BACK from the violent criminals.

Taking Alabama Back from Corruption
Every Alabamian has watched in despair as the politically corrupt have tightened their stranglehold on our state government. The Speaker of the House of Representatives stands convicted of 23 counts of misusing his office for personal gain and soliciting gifts from lobbyists. He remains free. Numerous other legislators have been forced from office for their own corrupt activities.

Most notably, though, Alabama spent three years as the lead joke on the national news as Robert Bentley made a mockery of public service. At the height of the scandal, Governor Bentley faced impeachment proceedings, four felony referrals from the Alabama Ethics Commission, a criminal grand jury, and the prospect of multiple court cases – both civil and criminal. The kind of deals that were once confined to smoky back rooms are now cut in plain view as those investigating the activities of the Governor and in charge of his investigations asked for favors from the very target of those investigations, lied about their activities, and appear to have traded their appointments for a favorable plea deal that allowed Governor Bentley to escape the consequences of his actions.

As a little boy, my dad would often point to the TV screen during news reports of the Governor and say, “Son, if you work hard, study hard, and apply yourself, you can grow up and be just like him”. I fear it has been far too long since any parent in their right mind in Alabama challenged their child to grow up and be like our Governor. That is unacceptable!

We stand in danger of an entire generation of children growing up in an Alabama where the lessons our leaders have taught us are that public service is dishonorable and that all politicians are corrupt. We can and we must change that.

To do so, we must have zero tolerance for corruption. We must remind those who hold public office that they serve a high calling and that, if they betray their oaths, the constitution, and those they are sworn to serve, we are prepared to use the law to the fullest extent to make examples of them and hold them accountable. At the same time, we must further tighten and strengthen our ethics laws to ensure that the penalties for public corruption are adequate to deter future corruption and to punish those who abuse the public trust. Only by doing so can we ever TAKE ALABAMA BACK from the corrupt.

Taking Alabama Back from the Establishment
For too long now the entrenched and self-entitled Establishment forces in Montgomery have had their way. They have come to believe their money and their power buys them the right to place their interests ahead of those interests of the people of Alabama. The result has been the widespread erosion of confidence in the branches of state government. It is time the people of Alabama rally together and to remind those who serve in state government and those who believe they have bought our government that the real power lies with the people. We must remind the powerful that, in Alabama, it is the government that should work for the people and not the other way around. Our willingness to stand together and to demand accountability across government is the only way to TAKE ALABAMA BACK from those forces that have come to exert to much control over government.

Taking Alabama Back from Opioids
Our state’s families and communities are in the grips of a deadly struggle with an exploding drug epidemic. It is a struggle we are losing. To understand why, and begin dealing with this problem, we must properly understand the extent of the problem. Last year in Alabama, more prescriptions for opioids were written per capita than any other state in the country. Opioid addictions are among the most powerful, and unless we properly combat the problem, Alabama will experience what has occurred elsewhere in the country—the opioid crisis will become a heroin epidemic. If Alabama does not act and act decisively, generations of Alabamians stand to become victims.

Alabama families and communities are depending on their Attorney General stop the suffering, and they deserve a more effective response. The current approach has included studying the issue to conclude that more studying of the issue is necessary and to file a misguided lawsuit.

Alabamians deserve a strong response from their Attorney General, because the Attorney General has the most direct ability to lead the charge against the opioid crisis in court. But, Alabama’s weak lawsuit fails to do so. It was brought against only one drug manufacturer, Purdue Pharmaceuticals. Yet Purdue is only responsible for two percent of the opioid prescriptions written in Alabama. Allowing those responsible for 98% of the problem to escape accountability for the harm they have inflicted, and to remain unbridled, sends the wrong message. The only effective response is to hold those responsible for creating this crisis accountable… not one of them, but all of them. Because the current approach means that those who are poisoning and addicting our children and families continue to get rich and face no accountability for their actions. Further, Alabama’s lawsuit was filed in federal court in Ohio. That should not have happened, Alabama’s case should be heard in an Alabama court by Alabama citizens who can apply Alabama law and render judgment and impose punishments commensurate with the harm done in Alabama.

Solving the opioid problem in Alabama will not be simple, but neither was dealing with the methamphetamine crisis. The leadership I provided as Attorney General led to real common sense responses to the meth problem that led to a decline in meth production, addictions, and deaths in our state. We must be heartened as we wage this war, there are no problems in Alabama that cannot be solved, only problems that have not been solved yet. Implementing a real response to this clear and present danger is the only effective path to take Alabama back from the opioid epidemic that is now threatening our state and killing our children while destroying our communities.

I am committed to using my experience earned waging war on methamphetamines to attack this current crisis. I look forward to responsibility of taking Alabama back from opioids.

Taking Alabama Back from Sexual Predators
It’s important to have laws. The right laws, good laws, strong laws that will make a difference. That’s why, when I was Attorney General, we rewrote Alabama’s sex offender laws and made them the toughest sex offender laws in the country. People said, “You’ll never get that through. Children don’t have lobbyists. Children don’t make campaign contributions. Children don’t go to the Capitol. You will never get this bill passed.” But we did!

It’s not just important that we have laws though. Maybe more important, is that we use the laws we have. For example, we had a child pornography law in Alabama that made it a crime to take a child’s innocence away with a camera, but having a law that says you should not do it does not stop anybody from doing anything. So we took the law and we used it. We indicted a man who had a computer set up next to his little girl’s bed where he was running a child pornography ring out of her bedroom. We convicted him and sentenced him to 115 life sentences plus 1960 years on top of that. Somebody stopped me after this made the news and asked me, “Wouldn’t you have made the point just as well with ten indictments?” The answer is: No! Every child in Alabama is precious. Every child has the right, if you steal their innocence with a camera, to have their day in court. So no, it was not enough to just indict five or ten as a sample. Because to do that would require us to say, “This child should have their day in court, but this other child should not because we are just making a point.” We were not making a point, my friends, we were making an example.

So 115 life sentences and 1960 years later, sex offenders are on notice that Alabama is not the place to come and peddle their smut. This is not the place to come and hurt our children. Every child deserves their own day in court. So the message was important. The message was: “if you come to peddle smut in Alabama, we’ve got a severe sentence waiting for you. We’ve got a tough law and we are prepared to use it to protect the children of this state.” Only when we do that can we make clear to those who peddle smut— Not in our state. Not our children. Not now. Not ever. Then, and only then, can we take Alabama back from predators.^[22]