Could Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) be the first President from Alabama? The conservative Alabama Forestry Association (AFA) hopes so.
“AFA headquarters, 555 Alabama Street in Montgomery, is now ground zero for the ‘Draft Jeff’” campaign,” says a new post on the organization’s governmental affairs blog.
“What better candidate is out there that is willing to stand up and take on Washington than Jeff Sessions? Who better exemplifies conservative values? Who better represents what Alabamians want in a leader? Most importantly, what public official has done a better job at earning the trust of his constituents?”
Senator Sessions made Alabama history last year when he ran completely unopposed in both the GOP primary and the general election—something that has never happened before for one of the state’s Senate seats.
He’s so well loved in the Yellowhammer State that Daily Caller Editor-In-Chief and Fox News personality Tucker Carlson once quipped on the Laura Ingraham Show, “Jeff Sessions is so popular he could come to work in a dress and still be running unopposed. He is the most popular person in Alabama except for maybe Nick Saban, and it’s all earned, in my opinion.”
While he has long been a perennially popular figure in Alabama politics, Sen. Sessions has become a hero to proponents of small government across the country in recent years as his vocal opposition to federal government overreach has earned him sound bytes with media giants such as Rush Limbaugh.
The AFA pointed to the Sessions vs. EPA video featured on Yellowhammer Thursday, calling it “priceless and vintage Sessions.”
The AFA blog post isn’t the first time we’ve heard the idea of a “President Sessions” batted around. Last year, nationally syndicated talk radio host and Fox News contributor Laura Ingraham said the Senator would be a great President, one whose defense of a fair immigration system, and “ability to say it like it is” could bring more diversity to the GOP.
“We need Sessions for President,” Ingraham said on her show last March. “Really, is there anyone out there who is better than Jeff Sessions on any of these issues? He’s great.”
In January, famed economist Thomas Sowell said, though he thinks a governor should be the next President, Sen. Sessions would make an invaluable contribution to the next GOP administration.
“If Republicans choose a governor as their presidential candidate in 2016, someone like canny Senator Sessions could make a very valuable contribution as vice-president, able to pass on to a new president the fruits of his experience in the Washington environment, along with his ability to resist the pitfalls of that environment,” Sowell said.
While Sessions has dismissed any suggestion that he should run for the presidency, it’s hard to ignore the long and growing list of conservative heavyweights who would have his back if he did.
