Photo courtesy of Ken McFeeters
Ken McFeeters
Ken McFeeters, a north Shelby County resident, has announced he is running for governor, putting him in a matchup with U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville in the May 19 Republican primary next year.
McFeeters, a 65-year-old past president of the Mid-Alabama Republican Club who lost a bid to unseat Gary Palmer in Congress last year, said he wants to offer voters a choice of someone who will challenge the establishment power players in the state and nation and fight for the people of Alabama.
Established power brokers such as the Business Council of Alabama, Alfa Insurance, the Alabama Education Association and trial lawyers keep control by funding candidates’ election campaigns, McFeeters said. The Republicans may have gained the majority in the Legislature in 2010, but the same people are in charge behind the scenes as before, he said.
Now, national power players are trying to put Tuberville in the governor’s seat in Alabama by backing his campaign, and Alabamians need someone who will help the state break free from the entrenched interests of the political class more concerned with maintaining power and wealth than serving the needs of everyday residents, McFeeters said.
He would fight the globalist agenda that he said threatens the sovereignty of the American people, he said.
“For over a century, a small group of men have controlled the creation of money, manipulated markets and accumulated enormous power,” McFeeters said. “They control everything—from the food that makes us sick, the medicine that treats the sicknesses, to the media that hides the truth. They control the wars, the companies that supply the wars and the industries that profit from it. And they control the politicians that protect them.”
McFeeters said the most recent attacks on the American people have been through the destruction of the family farm. There are globalist forces that, if they can’t get vaccines mandated for people, are instead seeking to accomplish the same thing by requiring vaccination of animals used for human food or altering the plants that are grown for food, he said.
“That’s why the establishment has been systematically eradicating family farms. We need to restore local food production, secure our water and power resources, and ensure that Alabama is independent from the globalist forces that seek to control us,” McFeeters said. “If we lose the ability to feed ourselves, we lose our independence.”
McFeeters said he also wants to overhaul Alabama’s educational system to restore order and discipline in schools facing challenges and hire teachers who have not been indoctrinated by the current educational system, which he said leans to the left.
“Our education system is failing our children,” he said. “Rather than teaching critical thinking, values, virtues or life skills, our schools are churning out obedient workers trained to follow orders, not lead. This system is intentionally designed to produce compliance, not creativity.”
While the education industry bemoans a teacher shortage, there are plenty of talented people out there who could teach if allowed, McFeeters said. The establishment makes sure that schools can’t hire teachers unless they go through indoctrination training in left-leaning education programs at universities, he said.
“We need to change our schools drastically, and the right governor could actually do it,” he said.
His plan includes bringing in former military personnel to help restore order and discipline in schools where those are lacking.
McFeeters said the current power players in Montgomery have been fighting a state lottery because they fear gambling interests will take their power away from them because of all the money in the gambling industry.
He said he’s not a gambler but does occasionally buy lottery tickets in other states. He doesn’t actually believe a lottery is necessarily a good idea because he considers it a regressive tax that hurts the poorest segment of society, but it’s what he believes a majority of people in Alabama want. Therefore, he supports the idea of creating an Alabama lottery if it were a “clean lottery bill” not tied to casino-style gambling, he said.
McFeeters also criticized Tuberville for taking money from the national establishment and said Tuberville has not spoken out against federal money being funneled through United States Agency for International Development grants and payments to non-governmental organizations that he said orchestrated illegal migration from Central and South America.
Tuberville also hasn’t spoken out against federal money being used for vaccinations in third-world countries that have led to increased sterilization and mortality rates, McFeeters said.
“Alabama deserves better than a puppet of the globalists,” he said. “We need a governor who will fight for the people, not for the money.”
He also agrees with those who claim Tuberville doesn’t qualify to run for governor of Alabama, claiming Tuberville hasn’t legally lived in Alabama for the seven years “next before” the election, as required by the state constitution.
Tuberville has claimed in a radio interview that he moved back to Alabama “probably full-time” at the end of August 2018, even though he voted in Walton County, Florida, in November 2018. Seven years before the May Republican primary next year would be May 2019. Tuberville claims his primary residence is in Auburn.
McFeeters said his roots in Alabama go back to 1971. He said he grew up in Hoover, graduating from Berry High School in 1979. He attended the University of Alabama at Birmingham but dropped out to start an insurance agency with his family in Hoover in 1981. He has been in the same family business for 44 years, and they now have offices as PAC Insurance in Hoover, Bessemer and Roebuck.
He now lives in north Shelby County in the Indian Lake community off Alabama 119. He has been involved with politics for more than 20 years, serving as legislative chairman for the Alabama Independent Insurance Agents for at least 10 years. During his tenure, the association has raised more than $600,000 for judicial races in Alabama.
In addition to placing third in the 2024 Republican primary for the Congressional District 6 seat held by Gary Palmer, McFeeters also had an unsuccessful bid to replace David Wheeler in Alabama House District 47 after Wheeler died in 2022.
For more information about McFeeters, visit his social media pages at Ken4Gov on Facebook, Ken4Governor on X and Ken4Governor on TikTok, or contact him at ken35216@yahoo.com.
For more information about Tuberville, go to coachforgovernor.com.
