Alabama Republican Party Chairman John Wahl on Saturday spoke to the Mid Alabama Republican Club in Hoover. Wahl explained how the Alabama Republican Party can have influence beyond the borders of Alabama.
“I want to thank you all for being involved in the political process,” Wahl said. “When I was elected, at age 33, I was the youngest chairman in the country.”
“I want Alabama to be more than red here,” WahI said. “We have started the Restore America Campaign.”
“We are going to export Alabama values,” Wahl said. “Democrats are so good at getting support from California and New York and funneling that to swing states. We are working with Joan Reynolds for Alabama to do the same thing.”
Wahl said that he wanted to raise money to send volunteers from the Alabama Strike Force door-to-door in other states in order to take back the U.S. House of Representatives in 2022.
“I really enjoyed working with the legislature,” Wahl said. “I really want to thank (state Senator) Dan Roberts.”
“I also work very closely with the state Legislature,” Wahl said of the 2021 Legislative Session. “We have gotten a lot of great things accomplished.”
Wahl cited GOP effort that killed the no-excuse absentee voting bill in committee, the ban on vaccine passports, and legislation by Rep. Kiel that says that, “As long as any business is open Churches can be opened. In other parts of the country and Canada we have seen Churches closed and pastors arrested.”
“I realized something pretty quickly and that Democrats are hypocrites,” Wahl said. “They want the police defunded, but are pouring money into upgrading the Capitol Police. They say guns are dangerous, but they themselves are protected by guns.
“They say that walls don’t work I take a little offense to that because I am a Wahl, and they build walls around the Capitol. When they say that you deserve one layer of protection and they deserve another layer of protection we have a problem.”
“They see themselves as a ruling class, that they know better than you how to run your lives,” Wahl said of Democrats.
Wahl said that the Summer Meeting will be on Aug. 21. Wahl also said that he wanted the Republican Party to do a better job of reaching out to young people
“When I look at my generation I see that they are not as conservative as they should be,” Wahl said. “Working with the Chairman of the Alabama College Republicans, we are looking to do outreach to the college campuses across the state.”
Wahl said that the Alabama GOP is looking to be more engaged on social media and that more effort needs to be directed at reaching out to minorities.
“There is no doubt that both African Americans and Latinos should be Republicans,” Wahl said.
“We do more for them and have done more for them.”
“Kenneth Paschal will be our first elected Republican in the state Legislature” since the 1870s, Wahl said. “We want to find the right candidates. It is a long-term approach.”
Paschal is running as the Republican nominee for the Alabama House District 73 seat in Tuesday’s special election in Shelby County.
Wahl also said that he was very confident that April Weaver would win the state Senate District 14 special election on Tuesday. SD14 includes parts of Shelby, Chilton, and Bibb Counties.
Wahl was asked about overturning the controversial Common Core Standards in Alabama public schools.
“This is obviously one of the biggest issues we have for the party,” Wahl said. “We have passed several resolutions. We hear more about this and just socialism infiltrating our schools than any other issue.”
“The real problem is the federal government involvement in the schooling process,” Wahl said. “It doesn’t work. Our education has actually gone down.”
“I will meet with the Speaker of the House and bring this up next week,” Wahl said. “The Democrats and the socialists have been targeting education for many years. They understand that what you teach children today becomes your society in the future.”
“The Republican Party is the choice for anyone who wants freedom and prosperity for the family,” Wahl said. “The Democratic party their model is to bring everybody to the same level, which sounds good if they are bringing you up, but what really happens is they bring everybody down.”
“I am a leptozoologist,” Wahl said. “I raise butterflies for zoos, botanical gardens.”
Wahl said that when he was elected as the chairman of the Alabama Republican Party, one media outlet did not say John Wahl elected as Republican Party chair, its headline was butterfly farmer elected Republican Party chairman.
The Mid-Alabama Republican Club meets on the second Saturday of every month at 9 am at the Hoover City Council Chambers.
