Jared Budlong

Jared Budlong (independent) ran for election for Governor of Alabama. He lost as a write-in in the general election on November 8, 2022.

Budlong completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Jared Budlong was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He earned an associate degree from Faulkner State Community College in 2004. His career experience includes working as a project manager for a marketing agency. He has been affiliated with the Eagle Scouts.^[1]

Elections

2022

General election

General election for Governor of Alabama

Incumbent Kay Ivey defeated Yolanda Flowers, James Blake, and Jared Budlong in the general election for Governor of Alabama on November 8, 2022.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Kay Ivey (R)	66.9	946,932
	Yolanda Flowers (D)	29.2	412,961
	James Blake (L)	3.2	45,958
	Jared Budlong (Independent) (Write-in)	0.0	0
	Other/Write-in votes	0.7	9,432

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 1,415,283
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary runoff election

Democratic primary runoff for Governor of Alabama

Yolanda Flowers defeated Malika Sanders-Fortier in the Democratic primary runoff for Governor of Alabama on June 21, 2022.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Yolanda Flowers	55.1	32,529
	Malika Sanders-Fortier	44.9	26,469

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 58,998
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Governor of Alabama

The following candidates ran in the Democratic primary for Governor of Alabama on May 24, 2022.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Yolanda Flowers	33.9	56,991
✔	Malika Sanders-Fortier	32.5	54,699
	Patricia Jamieson	11.7	19,691
	Arthur Kennedy	9.3	15,630
	Doug Smith	7.1	11,861
	Chad Chig Martin	5.6	9,352

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 168,224
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Christopher Countryman (D)

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Governor of Alabama

The following candidates ran in the Republican primary for Governor of Alabama on May 24, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Kay Ivey	54.5	357,069
		Lynda Blanchard	19.2	126,202
		Tim James	16.2	106,181
		Lew Burdette	6.5	42,924
		Dean Odle	1.8	11,767
	Submit photo	Donald Jones	0.6	3,821
	Submit photo	Dave Thomas	0.4	2,886
		Stacy George	0.4	2,546
		Dean Young	0.4	2,356

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 655,752
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Jim Zeigler (R)

Campaign themes

2022

Ballotpedia survey responses

Jared Budlong completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Budlong's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I'm a long-time resident who knows there is more to Alabama than the rest of the country and world sees in the news. I have a wife (Elisha) and three sons (Josiah, Rhys, and Ian) and live in Daphne.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Every human has the right to a life of dignity.
People come before profit.
We must work to reduce societal harm.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Better quality and access to healthcare and education for EVERY resident of Alabama. There are no qualifiers on who deserves healthcare and education, including economic status. I also know that our criminal justice* system needs an overhaul in order to move away from the profit focused modern day slavery we're currently perpetuating.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

I look up to everyone who faces unrelenting oppression each day and continues to choose grace and works for the betterment of society as a whole.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Elected officials must come to work with humility; especially the ability to sympathize and empathize with those they represent who do not have the same life experiences.

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

As a lifelong Eagle Scout, I follow the scout law to the best of my abilities at all times.

A scout is Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean, and Reverent.

What legacy would you like to leave?

I want every resident of Alabama to be afforded a life of dignity.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

I remember watching the events of 9/11 at school and my 11th grade history teacher commenting "you're watching history being recorded."

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

My first job was at the Grand Hotel in Point Clear, AL where I started as a bus-boy and moved up to line-cook. I was there off and on from 1999 to 2001.

What was the last song that got stuck in your head?

Five Iron Frenzy - Tyrannis

What is something that has been a struggle in your life?

I come from a working class family that has struggled with mental illness and know the impact that limited access to quality healthcare can have on individuals and families alike.

A governor is the top executive authority in his or her state. What does that mean do you?

Being Governor is the guiding leader of a state and should be working towards benefiting the residents of their state and ensuring their cabinet and other hired positions are working towards that common goal.

Governors have many responsibilities, which vary from state to state. Which of those do you personally consider the most important in your state?

I think the responsibility to hire, manage, and fire (when necessary) the highest positions over our state governmental bodies to be the most important. This aspect of the job will be the way to send a clear message that our residents needs will come first.

Different states require governors to have different degrees of responsibility for the state budgeting process. If it were your choice, what do you believe is the appropriate degree of gubernatorial involvement with this process in your state?

I believe the governor should have final oversight and say in the budget approval process with the input of trusted professionals in each area of the budget. This should come after it has been reviewed and scrutinized by the State Treasurer and the finance officer for the state.

In most states, governors have the power to make line-item vetoes. If that is true in your state, what would be your philosophy for how and when to use this power?

This power should be used when a part of the proposed legislation in question doesn't benefit the residents of our state or if it is outside the overall scope of the proposed legislation.

What do you believe is the ideal relationship between the governor and state legislature?

It should be a partnership where the legislatures represent their specific areas of the state and the governor is there as a check to ensure no specific group is being benefited at the cost of the rest of the state.

What do you love most about your state?

The beautiful natural resources of forests, caves, lakes, streams, and beaches that so many people from our state and around the world enjoy.

What do you perceive to be your state's greatest challenges over the next decade?

Overcoming the historic influence of white supremacy ingrained into the culture and governance of our state.

Under what circumstances should the governor of your state be able to use emergency powers?

Under any circumstance where the lives of our residents and the natural resources of our state are under direct and imminent threat.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Campaign website

Budlong's campaign website stated the following:

“

HEALTHCARE

Alabama's healthcare ranks among the lowest in the country.

I believe everyone deserves the right to be healthy and receive care from trained medical professionals.

One of the first steps we need to do as a state is to expand Medicaid. Giving access to healthcare will give back the economy of Alabama while costing the state a fraction with the use of federal funding.

MODERN DAY SLAVERY

Slavery is legal in the United States of America on a federal level.

While the Alabama constitution claims to have abolished slavery, we currently have citizens who are stuck in lifelong service at slave wages in our prison systems.

We must get our prisons under control and safe for both those who are incarcerated and the staff.

EDUCATION

Alabama's education ranks among the lowest in the country.

Alabama is one of a few states that use the foundation program model which tries to use average costs to create budgets rather than the actual needs of our students. This results in inequitable funding, especially for the poorer communities in our state.

We need a new funding model.

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

I believe decisions about medical care should be between the person with the uterus and the doctor(s) providing their care.

Abortions are healthcare and should be available to anyone who wants or needs that care with the help of a medical professional when necessary. I am ready and willing to call for a special session to repeal the HB314 (2019) which restricts abortion access in most cases, included those resulting from rape and incest.

LGBTQIA+ RIGHTS

I believe all our residents deserve the same rights no matter how they present themselves regarding gender or what their sexual orientation may be.

Our state's treatment of our transgender youth is abhorrent and must be reversed. I am ready and willing to call a special session to call upon our legislature to repeal SB184 (2022) which prohibits providing gender affirming care (procedures or prescriptions) for minors and makes it a felony to do so.

CRITICAL RACE THEORY

I think our students should learn with age-appropriate lessons about the influence of our laws on the different races of our citizens, both past and present.

Many residents have expressed their concern over teaching Critical Race Theory in our public (K-12) schools. I urge you all to watch the following video to learn more about Critical Race Theory.^[2]

”

—Jared Budlong's campaign website (2022)^[3]

External links

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Candidate

Governor of Alabama

Personal

Footnotes

↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on May 17, 2022
↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
↑ Jared Budlong, “Positions,” accessed October 14, 2022

[bio-1] Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on May 17, 2022

[quotedisclaimer-2] Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.

[3] Jared Budlong, “Positions,” accessed October 14, 2022

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Jared Budlong

Contents

Biography

Elections

2022

General election

General election for Governor of Alabama

Democratic primary runoff election

Democratic primary runoff for Governor of Alabama

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Governor of Alabama

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Governor of Alabama

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Campaign themes

2022

Ballotpedia survey responses

Campaign website

See also

External links

Footnotes

Information about voting

2025 Elections

2026 Elections

2024 Election analysis

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