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A spirit that is not afraid

Debate becomes a debacle: U.S. Senate Republican candidates are evicted from venue

The four Republicans challenging U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, including Auburn alumnus and former SGA President Jonathan McConnell, met at Hoover Tactical Firearms Thursday night for a debate sponsored by a tea-party group, but they weren't allowed to debate.

According to shop owner Gene Smith, Hoover Tactical Firearms had no knowledge until the day before that a debate had been scheduled on its property by the Rainy Day Patriots. The tea-party group holds regularly scheduled meetings at Hoover Tactical Firearms every Thursday.

According to Smith, a debate between U.S. Senate candidates does not fall under the purview of a normal meeting. 

"Tonight's gathering was never booked with Hoover Tactical," Smith said. "We found out about it yesterday. This is very inappropriate for someone to come and take over someone's property."

Close to 100 members of the Rainy Day Patriots, supporters of the four candidates and locals packed into an auditorium at the firearm store and gun range, but they were forced to leave without a formal debate.

Smith met with Anne Eubank, an organizer with the Rainy Day Patriots, before the program began. According to Smith, he and Eubank made an agreement that the candidates would not say anything negative about Shelby because he was not there.

Smith agreed to host the debate if the four candidates did not attack Shelby, but the crowd did not agree.

"He's not here to defend himself," Smith said. "Hey, y'all came to this property without permission of the company. I was trying to find a way for y'all to be here and talk, but it's already been shown that you can't do that."

Shelby chose not to attend the debate because Alabamians are already familiar with his policies, according to an article on AL.com.

"I'm going to be upfront with you," Smith said before the event was disbanded. "I'm a strong supporter of Sen. Shelby, but that doesn't mean that we wouldn't have allowed a contract. A contract was never asked for, and thus, it was never given."

According to two of the challengers, former state Sen. Shadrack McGill and technology consultant and former Uber driver Marcus Bowman, the four candidates agreed in a private meeting before the event not to bash Shelby in the debate.

The crowd at the debate, including Rick Renshaw, campaign manager for McConnell, did not respond well to Smith's rules. Smith ordered the group to disburse after members of the audience began to shout back at him.

"Two of these gentlemen put their lives in uniform in defense of this country, and they didn't do it to have the First Amendment walked all over," Renshaw said in response to Smith. "We're out of here."

McConnell is a former Marine, and candidate John Martin served in the Army.

According to McGill and Bowman, they were prepared to stay positive, but McConnell's campaign led to the shutdown of the debate. After members of the crowd chose to stay when they were ordered to disperse, four Hoover Police Department patrol cars arrived on the scene.

"That was McConnell's campaign manager that ruined it for everyone," McGill said. "I think it was intentional for publicity purposes. It's very frustrating to drive 2 1/2 hours just to have one of the campaign managers ruin it. I don't go negative."

Renshaw and McGill swapped harsh words in a shouting altercation in the parking lot of the venue. McGill accused Renshaw of getting the other three candidates kicked out of the gun shop.

"This is the Nazi Gestapo that Richard Shelby represents," McConnell said. "It's that Machine at Alabama that runs politics in Alabama. It's Shelby and his thugs that basically try to keep us from even talking about his record. He doesn't have a conservative record."

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McConnell, the focus of several attack ads and even an entire website dedicated to attacking him paid for by Sen. Shelby's campaign, did not respond well to the rules imposed by Smith.

"Richard Shelby is a liar," McConnell said. "He is a coward because he isn't here, and he's a thug." 


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