The congressman from the 4th District is Robert Aderholt, a Republican first elected in 1996 to replace 30-year Democratic Rep. Tom Bevill, a longtime senior appropriator and federal benefactor for the region. Aderholt is from Winston County, the one ancestrally Republican county in north Alabama; it opposed secession in the Civil War and declared itself the Free State of Winston. His father was a circuit judge for more than 30 years; his wife’s father was a state senator and state commissioner of Agriculture and Industry. In 1992, Aderholt was appointed Haleyville municipal judge. Three years later, he became a top aide to Republican Gov. Fob James. With that pedigree, he decided to run for Congress when Bevill retired. As the Republican nominee, he faced state Sen. Bob Wilson Jr., who called himself a Democrat “in the Tom Bevill tradition.” In this culturally conservative district, Aderholt didn’t hedge on cultural issues, opposing abortion rights, gun control, same-sex marriage, and prohibitions against school prayer. “We want to go to Washington to deliver a message, and that is, don’t mess with our traditional family values,” he said. He also attacked Wilson for his support from labor unions and trial lawyers. This was a nationally targeted race, seriously contested, and Aderholt won 50%-48%. Read More

The congressman from the 4th District is Robert Aderholt, a Republican first elected in 1996 to replace 30-year Democratic Rep. Tom Bevill, a longtime senior appropriator and federal benefactor for the region. Aderholt is from Winston County, the one ancestrally Republican county in north Alabama; it opposed secession in the Civil War and declared itself the Free State of Winston. His father was a circuit judge for more than 30 years; his wife’s father was a state senator and state commissioner of Agriculture and Industry. In 1992, Aderholt was appointed Haleyville municipal judge. Three years later, he became a top aide to Republican Gov. Fob James. With that pedigree, he decided to run for Congress when Bevill retired. As the Republican nominee, he faced state Sen. Bob Wilson Jr., who called himself a Democrat “in the Tom Bevill tradition.” In this culturally conservative district, Aderholt didn’t hedge on cultural issues, opposing abortion rights, gun control, same-sex marriage, and prohibitions against school prayer. “We want to go to Washington to deliver a message, and that is, don’t mess with our traditional family values,” he said. He also attacked Wilson for his support from labor unions and trial lawyers. This was a nationally targeted race, seriously contested, and Aderholt won 50%-48%.

Aderholt’s voting record is generally conservative, and he was among the first House Republicans to join the Tea Party Caucus in July 2010. But he often votes with labor on trade issues, mainly because of local imperatives. He has supported quotas on steel imports and sponsored a bill assessing additional antidumping duties on foreign steel. He voted against normalizing trade relations with China, and opposed free-trade agreements with Chile, Morocco, and Singapore. In 2005, however, he was a crucial vote for the Central America Free Trade Agreement after he got a last-minute letter from President George W. Bush delaying the phase-out of tariffs on socks. Still, the agreement ultimately proved devastating for Fort Payne, which once had 150 plants and proclaimed itself the “Sock Capital of the World.” By 2007, sock imports from Central America and China closed more than 100 of those mills. Aderholt said that he was “disappointed” that the administration failed to give the mills more time to adjust. He also went to bat for the region’s aerospace industry in 2010, criticizing the Obama administration’s decision to cancel the Constellation space program without congressional approval.

Recognizing Aderholt’s electoral vulnerability, Republican leaders put him on the Appropriations Committee, where he has been able to secure more highway and sewer money than most of his GOP colleagues. In 2009, Aderholt became ranking Republican on the Legislative Branch Subcommittee at Appropriations. In his first year, he praised his Democratic counterpart, Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, for her fairness. But he voted against the conference report on the fiscal 2010 version of the Legislative Branch appropriations bill because it included a continuing resolution to fund other government agencies. In January 2011, after Republicans took majority control of the House from the Democrats, Aderholt became chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security.

And he hasn’t forgotten the social issues. When Alabama’s chief justice Judge Roy Moore called for a new law to prevent federal judges from interfering with public displays of the Ten Commandments, Aderholt sponsored legislation toward that goal. “The acknowledgment of God is not a legitimate subject of review by the federal courts,” Aderholt said. He was the only House member from Alabama in 2008 to vote against the $700 billion rescue of the financial markets. He cited public “discontent” with the plan, and the need for a more market-based approach.

Aderholt faced serious challenges in his first two re-elections, but has won easily since.