With nearly two weeks remaining until the Alabama Special Election to determine who will fill Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ vacant Senate seat, a new write-in candidate has declared his interest in the post: retired Marine Col. Lee Busby.
With some polls souring on Republican Roy Moore, the Republican candidate, against Democrat Doug Jones, the former Iraq and Afghanistan veteran thinks he could have a chance. The question is, will he have enough time to change voters’ minds? “Hold my beer,” the lifelong Alabamian told The Daily Beast. “We will just see about that.”
Busby, 60, brings an accomplished resume to the race, even if it’s a little late. Over his 31-year military career, the Marine served as vice chief of staff to Lt. Gen. John Kelly, President Trump’s current White House chief of staff. He also worked as a private contractor training the Afghan Army.
In the private sector, Busby worked as a factory foreman in the 1970’s and 1980’s. He was a small business owner, running a Birmingham microbrewery in the 1990s. According to Busby’s LinkedIn page, he worked as the President of a Mobile, Ala.-area disaster recovery company in 2013, before becoming a self-employed sculptor in January 2014.
Busby’s positions on issues aren’t immediately clear, but he tells The Washington Post that Moore’s personal issues have “created enough distaste in my mind.”
“As a voter, I don’t need to get to the bottom of it,” Busby said.
Meanwhile, Busby said voting for a Democratic candidate was equally problematic. “The people of Alabama are not going to be represented by someone who supports a liberal abortion policy,” he told the Post.
Last week, President Trump—who Busby voted for—announced he will be supporting Moore in the Senate race. Today a White House official noted that the president will not be campaigning with Moore before the Dec. 12 election.