BY HANNAH LESTER
HLESTER@
OPELIKAOBSERVER.COM
One candidate for Alabama governor — Lindy Blanchard — held a meet and greet visit at the Opelika Public Library Tuesday to meet constituents and share her views.
Blanchard grew up in Wetumpka, Alabama, in a trailer with her family. She attended both Auburn University at Montgomery and Auburn University and started a business with her husband managing apartment complexes.
After the death of her oldest son, Blanchard said she stepped back from everything she was focused on and reevaluated.
“God just focused me on helping kids,” she said on Tuesday. “Helping kids in our state. How could I do better for the children of the state. And I just started focusing on orphan care, adoption policies … foster care and how I could just jump in and help.”
She then “co-founded the 100X Development Foundation in 2004 to foster creative solutions to fight poverty and improve the lives of children around the world,” her official candidate website said. “She served as CEO of 100X and was actively involved in shaping and approving the goals and priorities of the Foundation.”
In the same vein of the organization, Blanchard adopted six children with her husband. They also have two biological children.
“Then our church said, ‘well we’re going to do a group to Africa,’” she said. “So we started also engaging with orphans and foster care policies across the world. We ended up working in 15 different countries.”
This led to Blanchard working with representatives in Washington, D.C. and her resume was circulating around. Blanchard said that the First Lady liked her resume and she was asked to apply for a position — USA Idea Administrator. However, the position went to another candidate.
She was then asked to apply to serve as Ambassador to Slovenia, which she did under the Trump administration.
“[God] was preparing me for what role I’m in today and that’s to come back from ambassador and serve, continue to serve, for the state of Alabama,” she said.
Blanchard listed four main views: constitutional carry and the second amendment; improving education and supporting school choice; immigration and amnesty; improving election security.
For more on her stances: www.blanchardforgovernor.com/issues/.
She took questions from the audience Tuesday as well. Blanchard was asked how she plans to wean America off of being economically dependent.
“It’s all about who you choose as your trading partner,” she said. “Port to port. You want to pick a port that’s not all controlled by China as well because they’ve managed to do that. So, Europe and Canada used to be the top trade partners for Alabama. A lot of it was agriculture. I plan to reach back out to those areas.”
Blanchard said, in response to a question about pandemic response, that Alabama can do a better job in being more self-sufficient.
“The governor is the first line of defense against the federal government,” she said. “I think as a state, we’ve learned that … we need to up our health system and have our health system prepared and ready.”
Along the same line of question, Blanchard was asked if she would require businesses to close should another big surge happen — whether businesses would be able to decide for themselves if they were ‘essential’.
“Anybody who puts food in their mouth with the money they make is an essential business,” she said.
She said she also plans to do away with common core and CRT.
“When Lindy returned home and began traveling across the state, she was welcomed by Alabamians who shared with her their desires for new leadership in Montgomery,” the site said. “People from all different parts of Alabama echoed the same thing, and Lindy listened.
“Lindy has been motivated by every event of her life — growing up in Alabama in humble conditions with faith at the center of her world, working hard to make ends meet for her family while earning a college degree and later building a family business, helping children and families across the world achieve happier and healthier lives, and most recently serving as a U.S. Ambassador overseas — to arrive where she stands now. Every moment of Lindy’s life has been leading to this opportunity of serving and fighting for the people of Alabama.”
More of Blanchard’s background can be found here: www.blanchardforgovernor.com/meet-lindy/.
“I’m up here asking you for your vote, to believe in me, to believe I’ll be that conservative vote for you,” she said. “I am the only outsider in the race that cannot be bought and will not be bought.”