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Campaigns - TPR's In Focus - Sept. 11, 2026 · In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson

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  Support comes from the Janice Hawkins Cultural Arts Park
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  on the main campus of Troy University, featuring the International
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  Arts Center, the Fred Nall Hollis Museum,
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  and the Hua Bao Zhu Gallery. More information at troy.edu/artspark.
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  From Troy Public Radio,
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  this is the News Wrap from In Focus, and I'm
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  Carolyn Hutcheson. Todd Stacy, host of Alabama Public Television's Journal
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  discusses how the gubernatorial campaigns are
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  heating up after Labor Day, and Todd reflects on
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  the effects of September 11th some 25 years later.
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  Todd Stacy, welcome back to the News Wrap here at Troy Public
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  Radio. Good to be with you. And many thanks to our station
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  director, Kyle Gassiott,
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  for for filling in with you. So Todd,
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  what's the big news this week? Well, we are fully into campaign
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  season. Look at the top of the ticket and both candidates
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  for governor, Tommy Tuberville on the Republican side and Doug Jones
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  on the Democratic side, have both come out swinging this week
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  with new ads. The thing about ads is you don't want to go
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  up on TV or on the radio for that matter unless you can stay up.
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  So what this signals to me is that The campaign season ads,
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  they're going to continue until November. Both candidates have enough
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  money to do that. But it's also interesting, the content of the ads.
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  Tuberville's is pretty general. He's reminding people
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  of his conservative bona fides and wants to be a conservative governor and
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  pretty basic 30-second ad. Doug Jones goes a lot deeper.
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  It's actually a minute-long ad and goes a lot into detail about
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  data centers. The data center issue is a big one. He's calling
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  for a 1-year moratorium, but attacking Tommy Tuberville for being too
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  pro-data center and not having enough calls for restrictions. And so
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  the fact that Jones is pressing this issue tells me he thinks
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  he's got a winning issue, and he might be right about that because people
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  really are worked up about the data center issue, especially as they continue
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  to try to expand in towns across Alabama. And the fact is,
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  the United States has an aging power grid, which is
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  an overarching concern. Oh, absolutely. And then you get into why
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  that's the case. And we stopped building nuclear 40 years
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  ago. We're just now getting back into building new nuclear plants.
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  But it was a similar kind of hysteria. It's dangerous. And, you know,
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  nuclear is very clean energy. So I think the power grid is
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  another big issue that nobody's really talking about yet. Todd,
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  today is a big anniversary. So in lieu of a wild
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  card, what do we have? Well, yes, it's September 11th, and 25
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  years ago the world changed, our country changed. I'll never forget
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  where I was. I was a senior in high school in Mrs.
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  Cleveland's government class. It was on TV and
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  it was just a life-altering event.
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  So many of my friends signed up for the military
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  that day or that week, and looking back on that day is— it's a sad
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  anniversary. And if you think about it, there's a lot of younger Americans who did
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  not experience that. And so it's really important for us to
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  educate young Americans about what happened that day, what it led to,
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  and maybe also think back about how, at least for several
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  years there, we were pretty united. It hadn't been that way for a while,
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  and maybe on this anniversary we can commit to trying to be more
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  united as Americans and not find ways to divide ourselves.
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  Very well said. Meanwhile, who's coming up on Capitol Journal?
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  Well, I mentioned it's campaign season and we're trying to interview all candidates for statewide
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  office. This week it is State Auditor Andrew
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  Sorrell. He's the incumbent running on the Republican side. And Violet Edwards is
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  the Democrat. She's actually a county commissioner up there in Madison County. Also going
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  to be talking with Tom Heflin, the son of Howell Heflin, former U.S. Senator and
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  Chief Justice. He's running an interesting organization called Harvesters of Hope.
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  They're trying to help out rural communities with legal help,
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  trying to get lawyers to volunteer their time to offer legal assistance
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  in rural areas, a need that is not really known about a lot.
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  Capitol Journal tonight, 7:30, Sunday at noon
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  on APT, with past episodes on YouTube.
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  Todd, thank you for the News Wrap. Thank you. That was Todd Stacy,
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  host of Alabama Public Television's Capitol Journal.
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  Thanks for joining us for the News Wrap from In Focus,
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  which is a podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
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  Feel free to get in touch at infocus@troy.edu.
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  I'm Carolyn Hutcheson, and this is listener-supported
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  Troy Public Radio.