#TakeTheHill is Clayton Hinchman’s version of the popular Drain The Swamp mantra.
The hashtag resonates with Hinchman’s military experience, which he has used as a point of focus in his campaign to unseat U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks.
Hinchman announced in May of 2017 that he would be running to represent Alabama’s 5th Congressional District.
“We’ve been told, and what I’ve heard, is the fact that the 5th District needs a leader who’s willing to listen to the people and then take that message to Washington,” he said at his campaign launch, which took place at the Madison County Veterans Memorial.
Hinchman has said that much of his motivation for getting into this race was the government shutdown of 2013.
“We had our Congress going on TV saying, ‘We’re sticking it to the president,’ and our congresspeople are talking about how they’re fixing the deficit,” Hinchman said in a recent interview.
“I took offense to Congress, I took offense to the swamp, I took offense to all the people who couldn’t work together to solve a problem,” he said.
Hinchman speaks often about the intersection of government, business and defense.
He was the Honor Graduate of his class from U.S. Army Ranger School, and gained his Airborne and Air Assault wings.
As part of the Army’s 10th Mountain Division and Special Operations Task Force 17, Hinchman went on a night raid in May 2008 that changed his life, when an IED critically wounded him. The attack led to the amputation of his leg.
Hinchman medically retired from the Army as a Captain and began finding his way back into civilian life.
He moved to North Alabama and founded USi, a cyber and information technology solutions firm, which has since been acquired by Ignite.
Aside from his personal story, Hinchman is utilizing the en vogue political strategy of the year for Alabama Republicans, and making his case partly about fidelity to Donald Trump.
One of Hinchman’s recent campaign ads paints Brooks as “the original Never Trumper.” The ad plays clips from an interview that Brooks did before the Republican primaries in 2016, in which he speaks negatively of Trump.
“I don’t think you can trust Donald Trump with anything he says,” Brooks says in the interview.
“Clayton Hinchman has stood with Donald Trump from the beginning,” the ad concludes.
Brooks recently announced he received Trump’s endorsement, in which Trump said Brooks “… fought by my side to secure our border, rebuild our military, cut your taxes, repeal ObamaCare, and build the wall!”
If Hinchman were to win the primary and the general election, he would join the unique ranks of Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), Mike Gallagher (R-Wisconsin), and Seth Moulton (D-Massachusetts), all 30-somethings who fought in the Iraq War and are now members of Congress.
The primary election is Tuesday, June 5.
@jeremywbeaman is a contributing writer for Yellowhammer News
