The plan, in 1996, focused on the short term. Dale Strong wanted to run for the county commission and represent the fast-growing Monrovia area in northwest Madison County. And that’s all.

Twenty-six years later, he sits in a disheveled corner office on the seventh floor of the Madison County Courthouse in downtown Huntsville. Boxes are everywhere as he packs up after 10 years as Madison County Commission Chair to move to Washington.

Congressman-elect Dale Strong will be sworn into office Tuesday.

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“There’s just a couple of things I thought we could do – (safer) intersections, youth athletics, better roads,” Strong said in a recent interview with AL.com.

Serve a term on the commission, maybe two. Get those things done. Move on. That was the plan.

Then the plan changed. One term representing District 4 turned into five. Then he moved up to represent the whole county and lead the commission. He will soon resign midway through his third term as commission chair after a landslide win to represent north Alabama in Congress. Strong will be one of 75 newcomers in the U.S. House of Representatives for the 118th Congress and the only one from Alabama.

So now what? Strong has been in the process of building out his staff and securing a residence near the Capitol. He’s also been in frequent conversations with his fellow freshmen in Congress and forming as many relationships as possible. Among those he mentioned was Harriet Hageman, the Trump-endorsed candidate from Wyoming who defeated Liz Cheney, a former leader in the House Republican caucus before voting to convict the former president following the Jan. 6, 2021, insurgence.

Others Strong has gotten to know include Mike Ezell, a former sheriff on the Mississippi gulf coast, and Mike Collins, who owns a trucking company in Jackson, Ga.

This is what Strong considers, well, a strength – building relationships. He pointed to the prosperity in the Huntsville area being a product of working relationships among elected leaders. Strong campaigned on that issue as well.

“The first thing is listening to the people of the 5th Congressional District,” Strong said. “From Killen, Rogersville, Decatur, Athens, Huntsville, Madison, Hollywood. Scottsboro. And I think that’s what they see is no matter where I’ve been, I’ve made it better. And that starts with relationships. I think that many of the things that I’ve learned in public service here, I hope will benefit me in D.C. It doesn’t matter whether I’ve got six commissioners or whether I’ve got 435 members of Congress, it’s about relationships and getting to know people.”

It always goes back to listening. While Strong’s district includes three of the state’s 10 largest cities in their entirety – a distinction no other member of Congress has in Alabama – there are rural areas in the district that seem far removed from population centers such as Huntsville, Decatur and Madison. And as such, they have different concerns.

“There are different needs,” Strong said. “We’ve got a lot of agriculture here. We’ve got advanced manufacturing, we’ve got engineering, we’ve got national security. And I truly believe that the 5th District of Alabama is probably one of the most complex districts throughout the United States because of the role it plays in propulsion with Marshall Space Flight Center and NASA. And then you look at what we do at (Cummings) Research Park and Army Materiel Command. But then you also look at the role of agriculture and other things throughout our community.”

If there is a common thread Strong heard from voters, he said, it was border security. Perhaps no other issue is more popular among Republican talking points. Strong is a Trump supporter, having already backed his 2024 presidential campaign, but a border wall endorsed by the former president is not the sole solution.

“I don’t think it’s one thing that fixes this,” Strong said. “This is a multitude (of solutions).” Later, Strong said, “This is going to take a lot of things.”

One thing that is not part of the solution so far, Strong said, is President Joe Biden. Since Oct. 1, the U.S. Customers and Border Protection has reported more than 400,000 encounters on the southern border. Republicans scored a victory earlier this month when the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily continued the Trump-era Title 42 provision, set to expire at the end of the year, to turn migrants away at the border due to COVID-19 concerns. The high court said in its ruling it would hear oral arguments on the restriction in 2023.

“The big thing we’ve got right now is the president of the United States is the one that should be leading this,” Strong said. “If that’s not going to happen, Congress and the United States Senate have got to get involved because the locals cannot do this alone.

“It’s the same concerns throughout America. This southern border is probably one of the No. 1 topics that, in the couple of weeks that (newcomers in Congress) have been there just in orientation, it comes up in every conversation.”

Border concerns specifically mentioned by Strong included keeping terrorists out of the U.S. and the flow of fentanyl into the country. The Drug Enforcement Administration said in December it seized enough fentanyl in 2022 “to kill everyone in the United States.” The DEA also pointed at two Mexican drug cartels as the primary source of fentanyl in the U.S.

“To do nothing is not an option,” Strong said.

While border security can be perceived as a polarizing issue, Strong said he believes there are Democrats who want to see change as well. He also spoke of bipartisanship on other issues – perhaps an idealistic perspective from a new congressman in a Washington environment where compromise often appears a toxic concept.

Strong said he spoke from the viewpoint of conversations from voters who he said “want a breath of fresh air” to represent the 5th Congressional District. Strong, of course, replaces Mo Brooks – who served six terms in Congress before an unsuccessful run for Senate in 2022.

“That’s the one thing I heard no matter where we went,” Strong said of voters wanting that “breath of fresh air” from a new congressman. “Maybe someone that is going to try different ways to bring people together. That’s something that we’ve been successful here at the local level. It wasn’t long ago, we’ve had mayors that wouldn’t speak to other mayors. But to reach our fullest potential, you have to have that dialogue.”

Republicans talking to Democrats? Democrats talking to Republicans? In Congress?

“We’ve got to find common ground,” Strong said. “I believe the best way, and this is what I’ve communicated in the days that I was there, we’ve got to look at possibly some clean bills that will bring people together — not only the Republican side but I believe there are Democrats there that support energy independence. I think that they’re concerned about inflation, just like the Republicans are. But I think that we’ve got to go for some of those common accord issues and let’s do some of that.”

Republicans have a narrow margin in the House, Democrats a narrow margin in the Senate. And the rhetoric of the 2024 presidential campaign will soon be at full blast. That common ground Strong said he is seeking won’t be easy to find.

“I hope that the next two years are successful,” Strong said. “But I think the American people are sick of where it’s at right now.”

Alabama’s senior members of Congress, Robert Aderholt of Haleyville and Mike Rogers of Saks, have offered guiding hands, Strong said. And he has found camaraderie with Jerry Carl of Mobile, who is wrapping up his first term in Congress and formerly served, like Strong, on a county commission.

“Those are probably the three that I’ve probably spent the most time with,” Strong said. “But they have kept me going down a path and to keep from making mistakes that others (newcomers in Congress) have made. So I think that that’s been beneficial to the 5th Congressional District.”

As for committee assignments, Strong said he has had numerous conversations with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy – who, of course, is seeking to become House speaker – about his preferences. Those include Armed Services and Homeland Security. Intelligence is another committee that interests Strong.

Rogers is the top Republican on Armed Services. Brooks, Strong’s predecessor, also serves on Armed Services as well as Carl.

“I want to be on committees that that we can make a difference here not only for America but Alabama,” Strong said. “House Armed Services is definitely one that I believe is a reachable goal.”