HOOVER, Alabama — As the process to determine who Democrats will select to be their nominee to face President Donald Trump in November 2020 is underway, the public is being exposed to the socialist forces within the modern Democratic Party.

Meanwhile, in Alabama GOP candidates are vying for Republican votes with seven months to go until they select a candidate that will face incumbent Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL).

During a campaign town hall on Wednesday, Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-AL), a candidate for that U.S. Senate seat in 2020, addressed Republicans’ chances in 2020. He said that as the Democratic Party is trending more socialist, the prospects of a self-described socialist being the nominee have increased.

Byrne mentioned the failings of socialism and pointed to the recent turmoil in Venezuela as proof.

“You only have to look at Venezuela to understand what socialism does, no doubt,” Byrne said. “They have the largest proven oil reserves in the world, and their people are starving? And it is the biggest refugee crisis in the world. Socialism has been proven that it doesn’t work.”

The Alabama Republican congressman predicted that if Democrats nominated a “socialist,” it would be an advantage to congressional Republicans and Trump.

“They are the thought leaders of the Democratic Party — they are,” he added. “They’re moving up rapidly in the polls in the Democratic [presidential] nomination race. I think it is more likely than not that you’re going to get one of those people than a Democrat who is not like that. But you’ve noticed, the socialists are dragging the rest of the Democratic Party to the left. I’m worried about that.”

“On the other hand, that’s not where the American people are,” Byrne continued. “So we’re having these elections next year — if they nominate a socialist, it is going to be a bloodbath. I don’t mean a literal bloodbath — the election is going to be heavily in favor of President Trump. I think it will sweep the House back to the Republican Party. My friends that are told me that they’re worried about that. They should be worried about that. I think we’re going to have a real decision next year that’s fundamental to America.”

Bryne said that he was concerned with the leftward drift of the Democratic Party but had confidence in the American electorate to reject socialist governance.

“Am I worried about it?” he said. “Sure, I’m worried about it. But I have more confidence in the American people than to think there’s somehow going to be intoxicated by that. People worry about young people about that all the time. I’m really not because those are my children that are millennials.”

He relayed how his son had come to be a fiscal conservative based on the withholdings from his first paycheck, which he suggested was also something with which the public had come to terms.

“The real world has that way of teaching us what is meaningful to us and what is not,” Byrne added. “It’s a worry but not one that threatens America because I don’t think the American people are going to stand for it.”

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor