HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Madison County Commissioner Dale Strong declared victory in his campaign for the Fifth Congressional District of Alabama in the United States House of Representatives. Strong, a Republican, defeated Democrat Kathy Warner-Stanton and Libertarian P.J. Greer in a race to fill the U.S. House seat made vacant after current Rep. Mo Brooks (R) ran for U.S. Senate. Brooks' term formally concludes and Dale's term begins on January 3, 2023.
Strong won with 67.11% of the votes (141,988 of 211,562 cast), to Warner-Stanton’s 29.53% (62,466/211,562) and Greer’s 3.19% (6,740). 0.17% (368) of votes cast were write-in.
Full Alabama election results can be found here.
Just before 9 o'clock local time, Strong addressed a gathering of a little over a hundred at the Stovehouse event complex in Huntsville. He immediately rattled off phrases like "border security" and "America first,” terms part of the conservative agenda in the Trump era and frequent themes of Strong’s campaign and that of his predecessor in Congress, Brooks.
Strong said he heard from former President Donald Trump and that it was a “very great conversation.” President Trump was one of “25 to 27 calls before [he] came out, everything from freshmen to folks that are currently in leadership” and there’s “about 75 calls that [he] hadn’t been able to get to.” The signals of support from Republican officials is significant, as Strong is entering his first term in federal office and is replacing a seven-term Congressman Brooks.
Strong became the final of six Republicans elected to the U.S. House Tuesday night, and did so with the slimmest of the six margins: Strong finished 37.58 percentage points ahead of the second-place candidate Warner-Stanton. While that is still a substantial win, Strong will represent the softest “red” area of any other Congressional seat. Madison County, Strong’s home county, the third-largest in the state and home to 17,210 more people than the other four counties in his district combined, was Donald Trump’s least secure county in Alabama among those he won in the 2020 presidential election. Just 52.77% of the vote - 102,780 votes out of 194,767 total votes cast - went for Trump. The 5th Congressional District at-large also held the slimmest margin of the six in the state that went for Trump and also was the most pro-Biden district not won by a Democrat: 62.7% for Trump, 31.8% for Biden. The Fifth District had the most people vote for the loser in their district than any other: 31.8% for Biden is 3.3% more than the pro-Trump vote in the Democrat-won 7th District.
When asked what his message was for those who didn’t vote for him, Strong said “you better believe it” that he was still their rep.
“You better believe it, we're their representative,” he said. And anybody that wants to solve … to make America more energy independent, is concerned about national security, is concerned about inflation: I promise you we'll be fighting for them, too.”
“We've got a great community, a great district, a very diverse district, but I'm telling you right now, I'll be fighting for everybody in America,” he added.
Strong’s next steps are to first formally conclude his term in office as Madison County Commissioner. He will preside over the County Commission session at 10 a.m. Wednesday morning before beginning the ‘preseason’ work to being sworn into office next January.
In the meantime, the work includes working with Republican leadership in the House about committee assignments.
While his predecessor Brooks was on House committees on Armed Services and Science, Space and Technology, respectively, Strong says he has a few in mind already.
“I'm actually shooting for House Armed Services and Homeland Security,” he told FOX54. “I think my background and things that we've got here at Redstone Arsenal, that that will also help, but again, we'll find out closer to January the third.”