MOBILE, AL- Downtown Mobile’s historic Arts District held a political discussion Wednesday, August 26 as Democratic candidate Clyde Jones hosted an intimate town hall at The Electric Piano Parlor.
Approximately 60 people attended the meeting, including veterans, families with children, and several candidates running for Alabama political offices. The event was sponsored by Indivisible Mobile.
Jones, a decorated Army veteran who served 21 years as a First Sergeant in the Signal Corps, met with local residents to discuss constituents’ biggest concerns ahead of the November 2026 midterm elections.
Participants wrote questions down on index cards, and were asked in order of which questions were most common. This system dictated the topics of discussion for most of the meeting.
Among participants’ questions, AI data centers were the most prominent. He is calling for a moratorium on all data centers until we understand their environmental effects, as well as the science behind why we need so many, and why they are mostly being built in underserved communities across the country, specifically in rural and poor communities in Alabama. He used Meta as an example of a company that is trying to do their part to mitigate the potential environmental impacts. Strains on the power grid, the abundance of fresh water that data centers consume, and their investments in local communities are only a few of the issues he raised.
Jones used the example of the Alabama Power coal ash pits to show how the current administration is deferring a dangerous environmental issue to the States, while knowing that States will only do what they are forced to do by the Federal Government. In the case of the coal ash pits, The Alabama Department of Environmental Management “has done nothing”. Jones said that if the issue is not addressed, consequences “would be like the BP oil spill times ten”. His goal is to push legislation to finally resolve the issue before it becomes a major disaster for the Mobile River Delta.
Civil rights are a major concern for Jones. He spoke about voter suppression in Alabama, and how we need major reforms. He referenced Alabama’s recent gerrymandered districts and the confusion it caused many voters.
He declared, “We are not a red State; we are a voter-suppressed State!”.
This is another area of reform that he will be pushing if he wins the District 1 House Seat.
The Clyde Jones campaign is running a grassroots campaign made up of individual donors and will not take donations from any Super PACs. This is a departure from many candidates from any political party, and it gives him a down-to-earth and honest appeal.
For more details about Jones and his campaign platform, visit his campaign home at Clyde Jones for Congress.
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