Robin Litaker qualifies in Congressional District Seven

On Tuesday, retired schoolteacher Robin Litaker qualified as a Republican to run for Congress in Alabama’s Seventh Congressional District. Litaker is challenging incumbent Congresswoman Terri Sewell (D-AL07) in the general election.

Alabama Today spoke with Litaker about her campaign.

When asked why she was running for Congress, Litaker said, “There are tons of reasons. Our country is in desperate need for conservative leadership.”

“We have been traveling across the Black Belt as well as Birmingham even before the redistricting lines were redrawn, and there are so many needs,” Litaker said. “There are areas with no running water. There are areas with no sewage service.”

“The Blackbelt has the richest soil in the world, but it is one of the most impoverished regions, not just in the state, but in our country.”

The incumbent. Rep. Sewell is in her seventh term representing the Seventh Congressional District, but Litaker believes she can do a better job than Sewell.

“The further away you get from an area, the less responsive to that community you become,” Litaker said. “Take Selma for example it is disintegrating with all of the population loss.”

“We see a lot of her during election time, but in my travels, I have met with people all over the district who have never seen her,” Litaker added.

Republicans like to say that the budget needs to be balanced but usually provide no specifics. When asked what she would cut from the federal budget, Litaker said, “Well, we have got a lot of problems.”

Litaker said that a lot of the issue is the bureaucratic agencies have become “bloated.”

Litaker gave the Department of Education as an example.

“I do believe in school choice, but a poor in Choctaw County has to have a public education,” Litaker stated. “The federal Department of Education is so bloated with administrative costs that none of the money is getting down to the child. As a teacher, you are dictated to from the Department of Education. Even when you get federal money, they dictate what you can do with it. Whatever we are doing, obviously, it ain’t worked.”

Litaker said that she favored abolishing the federal Department of Education.

“Every agency can be trimmed,” Litaker continued. “The spending, it is out of control, and the salaries that the upper people get are outrageous.”

“Every citizen has to balance their checkbook,” Litaker added. “If you spend and borrow more money than you can pay back, there would be repercussions. When Congress spends more than we have, there should also be repercussions.”

When asked if she supported aiding Ukraine in its current war with Russia, Litaker stated, “No, what I don’t endorse is spending billions in unaccountable dollars. We have issues here. We are being invaded on our southern border, and I haven’t heard anything from the current district seven representative about it.”

There is a lot of rural land mass in CD7. Alabama Today asked Litaker if she was confident that she could effectively represent Alabama farmers in the Congress.

“Oh yes. I have talked to some farmers in my travels, and they want a voice,” Litaker said. “They need an advocate. The Blackbelt is one of the richest land areas in the world, but underutilized.”

Litaker said that she supports legislation preventing foreign nationals from buying American farmland, but she would go further than that and take back the land owned by foreign nationals if their government does something hostile towards the U.S.

“We need to put more in place to protect the farmers,” Litaker said. “I have got some ideas I have been working on. They need our support.”

At present, Litaker does not have a Republican primary opponent. No Democrat has formally qualified to run against Sewell. The election is still 13 months away.

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