Bessemer's Brad Tompkins seeks Alabama House District 15 seat

Bessemer resident Brad Tompkins has decided to seek the Alabama House District 15 seat being vacated by Allen Farley.

The district covers parts of Bessemer, western Hoover, much of Helena and communities such as McCalla and Tannehill. He faces Helena Councilwoman Leigh Hulsey in the May 24 Republican primary.

Tompkins, a former homebuilder who owns and runs a factory automation business in Birmingham and recently opened the Fab Fruit business in Stadium Trace Village in Hoover, said his experience as a business owner and member of the Bessemer Industrial Development Board help him understand how government can help or hinder businesses.

“I want to put my experience in the private sector to work for the people of Jefferson and Shelby counties, specifically in the areas of workforce development and recruiting new jobs to our area,” Tompkins said.

There is a strong need for skilled employees with technical skills, from the homebuilding industry to the automotive plants and their suppliers, he said.

Education is really the engine of economic development, he said. “If we have the talent, businesses will come. If we have the infrastructure, businesses will come.”

During his tenure with the Bessemer Industrial Development Board, the city has had good success luring new businesses such as Amazon, Carvana, FedEx and a new Lowe’s warehouse, he said. Those are just the more recognizable names, but the city also owns a good bit of commercial property and brought in and helped develop businesses with tax abatements and mentoring, he said.

Tompkins said others who saw his work in Bessemer encouraged him to run for House District 15. He and his wife, Kaye, prayed about it, and he decided to do it.

“If good people won’t step up to help their community, where are we?” Tompkins said.

He has the business background and political and business connections that are helpful and the time to devote to the job, he said.

“We don’t need somebody just to go down to Montgomery and cast votes. We need somebody who’s going to work for this district,” he said.

He’s not an activist stuck on a particular social issue, he said.

But he is a conservative who believes in personal responsibility, limited government, free markets, individual liberty, traditional American values and a strong national defense, he said.

“Capitalism and private enterprise create the greatest opportunity and the highest standard of living for all,” Tompkins said. “Free markets produce more economic growth, more jobs and higher standards of living than those systems burdened by excessive government regulation.”

Tompkins said he is fed up with the nonsense coming from Washington, D.C., and believes President Biden’s mandates demonstrate a truck lack of understanding of how the economy works.

“There is a liberal agenda being advanced nationwide, and I’m going to make sure that we have conservatives representing us that understand how the economy works and will know how to push back against Biden’s unconstitutional overreaches,” he said.

As an engineer, he will approach issues with an analytical mind, but he also sees the humanity in people, he said. Even if he disagrees with someone, he wants to listen to them to understand their perspective, he said.

Tompkins was born in Florida and moved to Indiana with his adoptive parents when he was 10. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University and moved south when he graduated to get out of the cold.

He moved to Alabama in 1991 and worked for TLT Babcock in Alabaster, then for Intram Automotive in Irondale, and ATI and Siemens in Hoover, and left Siemens when the company wanted him to move to Michigan.

He had started a homebuilding business, Lenox Homes, on the side in 2003 and shifted into that business instead of moving up North, building mostly in Hoover and Helena, until the housing industry took a dive in the late 2000s.

Tompkins had started a consulting company called Automated Solutions in 1999 and shifted back into that business in 2008.

He has moved around a good bit, living in Bessemer, St. Clair County and McCalla briefly and in Hoover for 10 years. He moved to Bessemer, just outside of Ross Bridge, in 2015.

He and his wife have two daughters: 18-year-old Maggie and 15-year-old Katie, both of whom are homeschooled. They attend Hunter Street Baptist Church, and he and his wife are active with the Radiation Oncology Accelerated Research nonprofit that raises money for UAB’s Radiation Oncology Department.

Editor's note: This article was updated at 4:33 p.m. to correct the date of the 2022 Republican primary in Alabama. The date is May 24.