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Republican Caucus nominee for Speaker of the Alabama House, state Rep. Nathaniel Ledbetter, R – Rainsville, today announced choices to lead the body if elected during an organizational session in January.
Ledbetter intends to appoint state Rep. Joe Lovvorn, R – Auburn, to chair the agenda-setting Rules Committee, state Rep. Danny Garrett, R – Trussville, as chair of the Ways and Means Education budget committee, state Rep. Rex Reynolds, R – Huntsville, as chair of the Ways and Means General Fund Committee, and state Rep. Jim Hill, R – Odenville, as chair of the Judiciary Committee.
Because Republicans hold a 77-member supermajority in the Alabama House, Ledbetter’s selection as the GOP Speaker nominee is considered by many to be tantamount to election.
“I am confident that each of these members will serve our state well and invite new ideas and fresh perspectives to the committees they chair,” Ledbetter said. “All of them possess unique skills, talents, experiences, and abilities that make them uniquely qualified to chair the committees they will be assigned to lead.”
Lovvorn, who will head the committee that decides which bills and measures will be considered on the floor, is a retired firefighter and current realtor and small business owner who was elected to his seat in the Alabama House of Representatives during a special election in September of 2016.
He previously served as chair of the House Technology and Research Committee and as vice chair of the Ways and Means Education Committee.
Garrett was originally appointed chairman of the House Ways and Means Education Committee, which annually allocates more than $8 billion in state funding to K-12 public schools, community colleges, and public universities across Alabama, in August of 2021.
Prior to his election to the Alabama House in 2014, Garrett had a successful career in the steel, rail, and bus manufacturing industries and served as chief financial officer for two public corporations and a family-owned business.
He is a former vice president of the Trussville City Schools Board of Education; a former board member of Independence Place, a faith-based organization meeting the social and recreational needs of young adults with exceptional needs; and served on the board of visitors for the University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College of Commerce.
Elected to the Alabama Legislature in 2018, Reynolds previously served as a member of the House Ways and Means General Fund budget-writing committee, which distributes almost $3 billion in funding among Alabama’s non-education state agencies each year.
He held the positions of police chief, where he managed a $38 million budget, public safety director, and city administrator, where he was responsible for a $225 million budget, during a 35-year career with the City of Huntsville. Following his retirement in 2013, Reynolds served as regional vice president of a Huntsville-based communications company.
Hill, who was elected to the Alabama House in 2014, originally assumed the chairmanship of the House Judiciary Committee in 2017.
He was previously elected as district judge in St. Clair County in 1994, and as circuit judge in 2004. Retiring from the bench in 2013, he joined the law firm of Hill, Gossett, Kemp & Hufford, P.C., where he currently works.
Hill also served as city attorney for the municipalities of Leeds and Moody prior to his judicial service.
