HUNTSVILLE — First-time candidate Andrew Sneed said he is running for Alabama’s Fifth Congressional District because “Washington’s broken.”
Sneed, a Democrat and Huntsville native, graduated from Lee High School in 1998 and earned a BFA from Boston University in 2003.
He spent seven years in New York City, even appearing in a few soap operas, before returning to Alabama to begin working in the trades. He started as a $10-an-hour plumber’s helper and founded his company, Whole Home Solutions, in 2019. Today, he operates six work trucks with seven employees.
Sneed said his concern for the state’s future and the well-being of his family and community prompted him to enter politics.
“We’ got to fix the House,” he said. “We’ve got three little girls and I’ve got a small business and a lot of people, we work in the community and they’re just getting crushed.
“They’re getting crushed and people are tired of the politics of division and politicians that don’t listen. And so we’re going to hear every voice and do better for this district.”
Sneed describes himself as a Blue Dog Democrat, a historically moderate wing of the party.
“I’m a proud Democrat,” he said. “I really am.”
However, he said the Democratic Party today has lost touch with its traditional roots, pointing to the party’s role through the Great Depression, advancing civil rights and maintaining balanced budgets.
“But our party has sort of lost touch with folks,” Sneed said. “And I think a candidate like me that works under houses for a living and has worked with his hands for 25 years and has been listening to people quite literally all over the world is uniquely positioned to hopefully bring us back to a point that is more decent, more tolerant and more moderate, which is best for this district, both for our culture and who we are.”
Sneed said he is constantly meeting voters throughout the district.
“We’re quite literally meeting people where they are, to their homes, going to coffee shops, inviting them to come see us, meeting people that are in the trades, meeting with small business owners,” he said. “And we start by listening. I know that’s cliche, but it really is.
“If Democrats want to be effective again in places like this, I think that we’re going to have to listen first, acknowledge that people are, be, are angry. Let them be angry and stop trying to tell them how to feel.”
Sneed said he is also launching a national initiative called Balanced Accountability Candidates.
“We have started a national organization that has been my passion project called BAC it’s Balanced Accountability Candidates,” he said. “It’s this five-point candidate pledge for term limits for Congress, get rid of Citizens United. No stock trading for Congress. Break the pipeline, a moratorium from Congress to K St. Right now it’s one year, we say at least five, basically changing the end and enforceable code of ethics for the Supreme Court.
“And this is not only something I’m passionate about and a bunch of other Democrats around this country are passionate about because I am, but I think people are desperate for it.”
Sneed said he believes BAC is “going to be a big national story” by July and other candidates are joining the initiative.
The Alabama statewide primary election is May 19.
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