Photo by Jon Anderson.
Gerrick Wilkins of Vestavia Hills, center, talks with people at Veterans Park in Hoover on Oct. 5. He announced he is running against U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer in the March 2024 Republican primary for the Sixth Congressional District of Alabama.
A Vestavia Hills resident with more than 24 years in the automotive industry, Gerrick Wilkins, on Oct. 5 announced he is opposing Gary Palmer in the Republican primary for Alabama Congressional District 6 in March 2024.
The new Congressional District 6, approved by a federal court on Oct. 5, stretches from Jefferson County to Autauga County and includes Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Trussville, Clay, Shelby County, most of north Jefferson County and parts of Hoover and Homewood.
Wilkins said he decided to run after Palmer earlier this year announced he would seek a sixth two-year term, breaking a promise not to serve more than 10 years.
Wilkins said he believes in term limits and not career politicians and feels that Palmer has done more talk than action and made some poor decisions that do not adequately represent Alabama values.
Wilkins said Palmer “refused to support the Parents Bill of Rights,” legislation passed by the House of Representatives in March that, among other things, would allow parents to review curriculum and inspect reading materials at their child’s school and prevent school officials from taking the place of parents in regard to giving consent for vaccinations or changing a child’s gender identification or sex-based accommodations without parental consent.
When the legislation was approved with a 213-208 vote, Palmer was one of 14 members of the House of Representatives who did not vote, according to online Congressional records.
Wilkins also criticized Palmer for advocating for spending billions of dollars to aid Ukraine in its war with Russia while the United States faces an “invasion” at its southern border.
Wilkins said government cannot overlook the pressing moral issues of the day.
“Our society faces an urgent call to safeguard the unborn, to counter child exploitation and eradicate the scourge of human trafficking that is pervading our country,” Wilkins said.
Wilkins also said he will fight for fiscal responsibility in Congress, support a balanced budget amendment and push for significant cuts to the federal bureaucracy.
He said the federal government has overstepped its bounds in regard to education. He said he plans to introduce legislation to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education and allocate those tax dollars back to the state and local governments.
Background
Wilkins grew up in New Mexico and attended Pensacola Christian College, where he met his wife, Carol. They married and moved to Virginia, where he finished his undergraduate studies in theology and his wife got her master’s degree at Liberty University.
He then began working in the automotive industry and has been in that industry for more than 24 years. Most recently, for almost five years, he has served as a broker in the sale of dealerships, closing 34 franchise dealership sales valued at more than $500 million, he said.
He and his family lived in Dallas a few years, but they have been in the Birmingham area the past 17 years, he said. His family moved to Inverness initially and then to Liberty Park in 2014. He and his wife have a 19-year-old daughter who attends the University of Alabama at Huntsville.
Wilkins obtained a master’s degree in business administration from Samford University in 2016 and serves on an advisory board for Samford’s Brock School of Business. He also is on the board for Mission Increase Central Alabama, an organization that provides free coaching to nonprofits on a Biblical approach to fundraising.
He has never run for public office before but believes his experience in business will serve him well in Congress, he said.
When asked whom he supports in the 2024 presidential election, Wilkins said he thinks any of the Republican candidates would be better than Biden.
“I voted for Trump in the last election and will likely vote for him again at this point, unless something changes between now and March,” he said. “He’s a business leader, and he’s an outsider like myself, and he’s focused on draining the swamp and getting rid of the corruption. I think it’s the career politicians that got us into this problem, and we need more business leaders like Trump in office.”
To learn more about Wilkins, visit his website at wilkinsforal.com.
