Terri LaPoint storms Alabama politics with God, Family, Freedom—and fire.

By Richard Luthmann with Michael Volpe

Investigative Firebrand Challenges Alabama’s Status Quo

Terri LaPoint isn’t a household name in politics – and that’s exactly her strength. The award-winning investigative journalist, known for exposing abuses in the child welfare system, has leapt into Alabama’s 3rd Congressional District race with guns blazing.

LaPoint has spent years “fighting for the little guy” and slamming politicians who only pay lip service to “faith and family” while “fighting for the big corporate interests.”

Now she’s calling out 10-term incumbent Rep. Mike Rogers as an entrenched placeholder who talks the talk but, in her view, “is the least conservative” of Alabama’s delegation.

“I’m a true conservative – I don’t just give lip service to it. I live it every day,” LaPoint declares, touting her biblical values and grassroots credentials.

As president of a Republican women’s club that won state honors, she’s worked on parental rights legislation and “demonstrated that in my life” by standing up for “integrity and justice and righteousness.” With a campaign motto of “God, Family, Freedom,” LaPoint frames her insurgent run as a righteous mission to “put families first” in Washington.

LaPoint vows to be the voice missing in Congress – one that will truly fight for ordinary families instead of cozying up to lobbyists. She even warned her own team to keep her accountable, joking that if she ever starts selling out to D.C. elites, they should “snatch me up baldheaded” and drag her out.

It’s clear this Alabama firebrand is not afraid to rattle the political establishment.

Mama Bear Runs For Congress: Exposing ‘Medical Kidnapping’ and the Foster Care Pipeline

LaPoint made her name uncovering what she and allies call “medical kidnapping” – cases where child protective services (CPS) and hospitals take children from loving parents under dubious pretenses. As the lead writer for MedicalKidnap.com, she shone a harsh light on a “dangerous alliance” between CPS bureaucrats and elite medical institutions that “undermine parental rights and separate sick kids from their families in the name of saving them.”

Her relentless reporting on hundreds of such cases nationwide earned her national recognition as a journalistic bulldog. After noticing “the exact same story” play out in state after state – from liberal California to conservative Alabama – LaPoint realized these injustices share a common root: federal funding incentives.

“Billions and billions of federal dollars” flow to state agencies, she explains, but “the vast majority of that is based on the model of remove the child, place them in foster care… and adopt them out… That’s where the bulk of the money is.”

In contrast, only a “tiny, tiny bit” is left to actually help families stay together. LaPoint argues this creates a “foster care-to-adoption pipeline” where children become commodities and families are torn apart for profit. She doesn’t mince words about the system’s perverse incentives.

“This whole industry… is [a] profit-driven industry that uses children as a commodity.”

In her recent book Voices That Will Not Be Silenced, an award-winning exposé, LaPoint details the “dark underbelly” of agencies that are supposed to protect kids. The book follows an Alabama grandmother’s CPS nightmare and the late Sen. Nancy Schaefer’s crusade against “the corrupt business of CPS.”

LaPoint’s message is stark – what happened to those families “can, and does, happen to loving families all over America,” unless federal incentives are overhauled. Her campaign is a direct outgrowth of this investigative legacy.

“Nobody’s truly fighting for our families” in Congress right now, she says, so she intends to do it herself.

Mama Bear Runs For Congress: A Reform Agenda of Transparency, Accountability, and Family Rights

LaPoint’s platform reads like a manifesto for family court reform. She supports an all-out audit of the federal funding streams (Title IV-D and IV-E of the Social Security Act) that, in her view, effectively put bounties on children’s heads. States have grown dependent on those dollars, “like… there’s quotas” of kids to remove, she notes, with “less than stellar practices” used to meet targets.

LaPoint wants to end the secrecy that shrouds juvenile courts.

“Absolutely,” she says, “Congress should force transparency by tying funding to open courts and public reporting of outcomes.”

The way she sees it, confidentiality has only “shrouded the evil doing” in backroom deals, while “innocent people get caught up… with no idea until it happens to them.” She helped craft H.R. 5647, the newly introduced Advocates for Families Act sponsored by Alabama Rep. Barry Moore, to inject oversight and advocacy into CPS cases. Under this proposal, any state taking child welfare funds to keep families intact (which is all of them) must allow a family advocate into the process.

Crucially, LaPoint says, “it doesn’t cost taxpayers any money… it will actually save money” while refocusing social workers on children who truly need intervention.

The data driving her reform push is eye-opening.

“Less than 16% of the cases that Child Protective Services deals with… are any kind of abuse”, LaPoint notes, citing federal stats. Most cases involve poverty or trivial issues, yet federal law perversely rewards agencies for pulling kids from safe homes. LaPoint is determined to “transform Title IV-B, D, and E so that the incentive isn’t to take the kids away.”

She also wants federal whistleblower protections for parents who speak out about corruption. Too often, CPS and court-appointed guardians retaliate against families who go public.

“They will… it’s the pattern,” LaPoint warns. “Parents risk losing visitation or custody if they complain. I would love to protect them… let’s have whistleblower protection… I’m down with that.”

Another flashpoint is the sinister world of forced “reunification therapy” camps – controversial programs that courts use to compel children to reconcile with estranged parents, sometimes even an alleged abuser. LaPoint agrees that the “heinous” practice needs a spotlight.

“Child abuse is a crime… you shouldn’t be forced to be with somebody who’s molested you or beaten you,” she insists, calling that “just common sense.” She’s troubled by cases where judges “put [kids] with the abusive person… instead of the one who’s exposing the abuse”, often to keep lucrative custody battles dragging on.

In Congress, LaPoint pledges to champion these children’s rights and put abusive reunification programs under the microscope. From DHR office cover-ups to kangaroo family courts, nothing in her reform agenda is off-limits.

“We’ve got to have leadership that puts families first,” she argues – and that means wielding federal power to hold state actors accountable.

Mama Bear Runs For Congress: Faith, Freedom, and a Fiscal Reckoning in D.C.

Even as she drills down on family courts, LaPoint hasn’t forgotten traditional conservative issues. A Christian homeschool mom and pastor’s daughter, she infuses her campaign with biblical values and prayer – literally.

“My first team… was the prayer team. We pray all the time,” she says of her grassroots operation.

But don’t mistake her faith for a lack of fight. LaPoint has no qualms about taking on the GOP establishment when they stray from core principles. She proudly supported Donald Trump in 2016 (even knocking on doors for him in Florida and Georgia), but she refuses to be anyone’s lackey.

“I love President Trump… but I don’t like rubber-stamping,” LaPoint says bluntly.

She wants to bring “education… information” to the MAGA conversation on issues she suspects even Trump “doesn’t… know about”, like the epidemic of family court failures.

“Let’s have a civil discussion,” she urges, praying for Trump while also asserting no leader is infallible.

LaPoint also calls for civility in the broader political arena – a commitment to “connect with people that don’t necessarily think like we do” and debate with “love, compassion, and firmness”, as she recently told podcast interviewers. On fiscal matters, this mama bear turned candidate is just as ferocious.

She blasts Washington’s out-of-control spending and wants a radical realignment of budget priorities. Her first target: the corrupt foster care funding machine.

“If we’d stop paying Social Security money to traffic children, that would be a big start,” LaPoint quips, firing a shot at the federal Title IV-E funds that incentivize child removal. She argues taxpayer money should never bankroll what amounts to state-sponsored family destruction.

LaPoint is also eyeing predatory banking practices – and she isn’t afraid to tangle with Wall Street. In fact, one of her bold ideas is capping credit card interest rates to give middle-class Americans a fighting chance. Families living paycheck to paycheck get “killed” by 30–35% interest on credit cards, she notes.

“You work really hard, you’re never gonna get out of that debt trap,” she says. LaPoint believes Congress can and should “bring it down to… 10, 12% and put a cap on it”, which “would make a massive difference for the middle class.” When asked if banks could survive such limits, she shot back that credit card companies should “be a little more selective” in issuing cards instead of gouging working people.

She’s equally unapologetic about slashing wasteful federal spending. That includes curbing the “endless wars” that Rogers has supported – “nobody likes that,” LaPoint says of the blank checks for military interventions. She suggests America’s NATO allies and other countries “pay for their own defense” so the U.S. isn’t “defending the entire world” on our dime.

At home, LaPoint points to billions spent on benefits for illegal immigrants – from education to welfare – as another drain to cut so “we learn to live within our means.” This hardline fiscal conservatism, married with her pro-family moral mission, sets LaPoint apart from politics-as-usual.

In her 30-second elevator pitch to voters, she keeps it simple: “I’ve been fighting for families for a long time… We don’t have enough voices in Washington that are really fighting for families… that’s what I do.”

She promises to put God, family, and freedom at the center of her service – “not just a slogan… the core of who I am.”

Whether it’s capping interest rates or confronting CPS, Terri LaPoint is betting that Alabama’s 3rd District is ready for a congresswoman who raises a little hell in the name of heaven. As she tells every crowd, she’s “not a politician” but a battle-tested advocate – and “we will find solutions together.”

In an era of closed-door deals and generational incumbents, LaPoint is offering something rare: a bold, unvarnished voice for families that will not be silenced.