When the vote tally finally showed Jamie Kiel would be the next representative of House District 18, it was the culmination of more than 18 months of work.
It was April of 2017 when Kiel and his wife Melissa sat down and decided together that he would take the leap into politics. They told their three daughters, and that’s when the work began. All 18 months of it.
“It’s truly been a family affair. If you do a campaign right, you better buy a comfortable pair of shoes,” Kiel said last Tuesday night.
Kiel received almost 72 percent of the vote in House District 18, which includes portions of Franklin, Colbert and Lauderdale counties. Kiel received 9,824 votes while his opponent, Franklin County Democratic Executive Committee chairman Eddie Britton, received 3,876.
Kiel took office immediately and will attend his first Legislative session next spring.
As a freshman Republican, you might think Kiel will be tempted to fall into ‘party lines,’ when it comes to his voting, but his ideology will be to best represent the voters, not a political party.
“My loyalty is to District 18. The people elected me to go to Montgomery to work, but you’ve got to come back home,” Kiel said. “Everything I do in Montgomery, I’ll keep in mind I’m coming back home and facing the people who sent me there.”
Kiel, who owns Kiel Equipment & Rental in Russellville, will still run the day-to-day operations of his small business, though he will rely on his staff to take care of things while he’s in Montgomery.
“We have a great staff, and we’ve been been doing what we do for a long time,” Kiel said. “There won’t be any change in operation.”
As a small business owner for 23 years, Kiel believes he’ll carry a genuine perspective to Montgomery when it comes to what’s best for business and the economy.
“I think owning my own business gives me a unique insight into what makes business work,” Kiel said. “While the state needs to do all it can to help businesses in Alabama, the most important thing it can do is get out of the way and let business thrive and keep job growth going.”
In Franklin County, Kiel carried 19 of the 20 boxes in HD 18. Britton won the Chucky Mullins Center 212-79.
“We knocked on doors all across the district, but Franklin County really came through, and I’ll forever be appreciative,” Kiel said. “I grew up here, went to school here and have been in business here for 23 years. Those relationships paid off, I think, and I certainly appreciate them.”
Colbert County voters went with Kiel by almost a three-to-one margin, 3,656 to 1,297. In Lauderdale County, the margin was almost the same, with Kiel winning 1,230 to 473 for Britton.
Britton called Kiel Tuesday evening to congratulate him on his victory and on running a clean campaign.
Obviously disappointed with the loss, what Britton found particularly frustrating was his belief that many voters never went beyond party affiliation to learn more about each of the candidates.
“If you look at the straight party voting, it went three-to-one Republican. But I’ll say nothing negative about Jamie. He’s a great guy,” Britton said. “When it comes to experience in education, though, I’ve been an educator my entire life, and I’ve worked with the Legislature on educational issues.
“People really never looked beyond the party. That was the bottom line of this election. Statewide, that just happens to be the situation we’re currently in right now.”
Originally published by Franklin Free Press by John Pilati.