Saturday, the Alabama Republican Party held its annual Alabama Republican Party State Executive Committee meeting. Over 450 Republican Executive Committee members, Republican elected officials and candidates gathered at the Montgomery Marriott Prattville Hotel and Conference Center. The state party committee focused on several resolutions and preparations for both the 2020 Republican National Convention in Charlotte, NC and the 2020 U.S. Senate race.
Alabama Republican Party Chairman Terry Lathan said, “The Alabama Republican Party is ready to take back the U.S Senate seat and do its part to re-elect President Donald Trump. Our membership is energized to defeat Senator Doug Jones who continues to cast votes against the majority of the will of Alabamians – especially on voting to impeach President Trump.”
Lathan praised ALGOP’s longest serving Chief of Staff Harold Sachs, longest serving Political Director Reed Phillips, longest serving Business Administrator Rudy Scott, press secretary Jeannie Faherty, and Shannon Whitt. Lathan also thanked AFRW President Britney Garner.
Lathan said that over 66 percent of all partisan elected officials are now Republicans. Last year the Alabama Republican Party raised over $1.3 million and comes into the 2020 elections with over $680,000 in the bank.
“The enemy is complacency,” Lathan warned. “We cannot give Democrats the reins of power.”
Lathan said that 100 percent of County Chairs have participated in the Growing Republican Organizations to Win. “Planning in August or September is too late. We work now to win in November.”
“We must not let liberal Doug Jones sit in the floor of the Senate and vote against the will of the majority of the people of Alabama,” Lathan said. “We need to end his arrogant tenure. Today we proclaim him ‘One and done Doug.”
Senate candidate Stanley Adair told the Republicans: “Our worst day as a Republican is better than their best day as a Democrat. We are going to re-elect our President, Donald Trump, one of the greatest Presidents ever and we are going to defeat Doug Jones.”
“Doug Jones said Alabama is ready for gun control,” Adair said. “He is not talking to the people that I know. We like our guns and we like our freedom.” “There are a lot of good people in this race and any of us would do a better job than Doug Jones.”
Senate candidate State Representative Arnold Mooney said, “This election is about our children and grandchildren. I have 8 grandchildren now and it will be ten grandchildren by the end of the year.”
Mooney said that he is running to give them the same freedoms that we have enjoyed.
“I have been endorsed by Mike Lee, Rand Paul, and conservative thought leader Mark Levine,” Mooney said.
Senate candidate Judge Roy Moore quoted Patrick Henry who said that the question before us is nothing less than freedom or slavery.
“One nation under God,” Moore said. “All our rights and liberty come not from government but from God. We have got to remember that.”
“If we don’t go back to God, socialism will begin to creep in,” Moore said. “It is not the Democrat party or the Republican Party that will save us, but a return to God.”
Senate candidate Ruth Page Nelson said that “It has been a long road and a steep learning curve,” but that she is committed to “Bringing Republican values to people of color. I am a Trumper from a long ago.”
“God was preparing me a long time for this,” Nelson said.
Nelson said that she opposes NAFTA which adversely affect people of color through a loss of jobs and an influx of drugs.
Nelson said that people of color are the people blessed most by President Trump and that the Republican Party is the right party for them to vote for.
Bradley Byrne, Jeff Sessions, and Tommy Tuberville attended Friday night’s ALGOP Winter Dinner; but were not at the Winter Meeting on Saturday.
Paul Reynolds and Vicki Drummond were both re-elected as National Committeeman and National Committeewoman. They had no opposition and were elected by acclamation.
Greg Cook of Jefferson County is the Alabama Republican Party’s legal advisor.
Cook said that two weeks ago the state and the party defeated people in court who were “trying to gerrymander our appeals court.”
Cook thanked Attorney General Steve Marshall and Secretary of State John Merrill for defending the Alabama appellate court system which are elected statewide.
The executive committee approved the 2020 Alternate delegate qualifying process
Cook explained that Alabama has 50 delegates to the Republican National Convention. Lathan, Drummond, and Reynolds through their positions are three of them. The other 47 will be selected by Republican voters on March 3. The party is also sending 47 alternate delegates. Each congressional district gets 3 and the rest are running statewide.
The Alabama Republican Party Executive Committee will meet to select the alternate delegates in a special meeting on May 30 in Pelham. Running as an alternate will require a $150 fee, except for people who ran as delegates in the Republican primary and lost. Their fee is waived. Qualifying to run as an alternate delegate will open at 8:30 a.m. CST on Monday, March 16, 2020 and close on Friday, April 17, 2020 at 5 p.m CST.
On Friday night, ALGOP honored Congresswoman Martha Roby (R-Montgomery) for her service. Roby is not seeking re-election. Roby was honored with a standing ovation by Winter Dinner attendees and was presented with an original piece of artwork commissioned by ALGOP.
Executive Committee member and Trump finance committee member former State Representative Perry O. Hooper Jr (R-Montgomery) is a lifelong friend of Roby. Hooper’s wife, Judy Hooper, who was coached as a cheerleader by Hooper’s wife Judy Hooper was Martha’s Cheerleader Coach at Trinity Presbyterian
“She has done a great job,” Hooper said. He thanked, Martha for her great service to America.”
Roby is serving in her fifth term in Congress.
The next meeting of the Alabama Republican Party will be May 30. The annual summer meeting will be in August.
