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The former mayor of Southport and one time leadership contender James Morris has suggested he may return to frontline politics in an attempt to take on Ramona Martinez for the presidency.
Mr Morris, now 56, believes that the National Alliance needs a ‘steady hand’ in next year’s election and has said to close colleagues that he feels he ‘fits the bill’. Incumbent Martinez, who has been criticised for her heavy handling of the press, faces reelection in August. Her presidency has been dogged by accusations of corruption and a recent public outburst where she attacked the media which has recently ran a series of difficult documentaries attacking her temperament and character. Mr Morris said that the country needed “to return to normality, with credible, sensible and effective leadership” – a nod to the themes of a campaign should he decide to run.
Morris rocked the political establishment in 2016 when he quit as the Alliance candidate just a month out from election day – citing that the pressure on his family and colleagues had been ‘too much’ – but privately close aides said that he had failed to connect with voters and would have lost the election ‘easily’. Mr Morris said in a recent interview that he “had learned a lot in the past three years” and had travelled “the length and breadth of this country”. Others continue to suggest Mr Morris does not have the experience of a national candidate – having only served as mayor of the small town Southport in the country’s southern Augusta region before throwing his hat in the ring to lead the party three years ago. Martinez, by contrast, hails from Fern Acre – one of Karolina’s main population centers. Her base also includes a swathe of northern voters, where she has extended the reach of her Popular Front party much deeper than any other candidate it has put up for election before.
Martinez aides say they would be ‘delighted’ to run against Morris, who they believe isn’t able to construct a winning coalition of voters across the country – many who continue to cluster into tribal and deep-seated patterns and behaviours, which national candidates like Martinez have exploited. With a performing economy, and a strong sense of national identity, Morris may also find it difficult to attack Martinez, unless further accusations of corruption and misuse of office continue to damage her leadership.
