On Saturday, the Alabama Republican Party State Executive Committee voted to pass a rule change barring candidates for State Board of Education, county school superintendent, and county board of education from accepting donations from either the National Education Association (NEA) or its Alabama affiliate, the Alabama Education Association (AEA).
The rule change, which does not retroactively apply to past election cycles, will apply to the 2024 elections. The rule change was sponsored by Alabama Republican Party Chairman John Wahl.
“One of my goals with this Standing Rule Amendment is making sure our school board and superintendent candidates are not dependent on any special interest group,” said Wahl. “With that in mind, I have already committed that the Party will step in and replace any funding lost should it become necessary. The Alabama Republican Party is in an extremely strong position financially, and we will have our candidate’s backs.”
Since Wahl was the author of the proposed bylaws change, he handed over his Chairman’s gavel to Alabama Republican Party Vice Chair Joan Reynolds for this debate while leading efforts on the floor to pass his bylaws change.
The Wahl amendment was weakened somewhat in an agreed-on change when the words “and coordinate with” were removed. This effectively means that the candidate could still coordinate with AEA efforts to smear their opponent on an issue such as a school tax increase that both support. The original wording would have made both activities grounds for removal from the ballot.
Hale County Commissioner Don Wallace offered an amendment to the rule change that would have also applied to candidates for the Alabama Legislature.
State Representative Ron Bolton (R-Northport) objected to Wallace’s amendment and asked that it be tabled.
State Auditor Andrew Sorrell said there would be time to consider extending this to other offices in future meetings, but with the 2024 election cycle beginning this fall, this was a time sensitive matter. Sorrell is the Bylaws Committee Chairman for the Alabama Republican Party and the State Auditor.
Wallace replied that the State Legislature just passed the largest school budget in state history and voted down school choice legislation, and were likely to consider an even bigger $10 billion education budget next year.
Wahl said Governor Kay Ivey has pledged that the state will pass one of the strongest school choice laws in the nation next session.
The members of the executive voted to take consideration of the Wallace amendment. They also voted to table a second amendment which would have applied to all Republican candidates – no matter what the office.
Jefferson County Republican Party Chairman Chris Brown made the argument that while he advises all of his clients and candidates never to take AEA dollars, the GOP has disqualified candidates from the ballot for several different reasons, and by putting this in the bylaws, it could make those efforts to disqualify future candidates more difficult. He then introduced a resolution to table the Wahl bylaws change. In what appeared to be a stunning rebuke of Chairman Wahl, the Executive Committee voted to table the proposed bylaws change.
The State Executive Committee then moved on and passed a number of other bylaws changes – including making the bylaws and rules committees permanent committees and establishing that the state executive committee will pick the delegates to the Republican National Convention.
After the other bylaws changes had passed, Sorrell said that in respect for all of the hard work that Chairman Wahl put into his AEA bylaws change, he asked the Committee to reconsider its earlier vote. The Committee then voted to pass the bylaws change.
“The Party is strongly committed to protecting our children from indoctrination in the classroom by left-wing groups like the NEA and its affiliated organizations,” Wahl explained. “Parents should decide what their children learn about divisive concepts, not education unions that have lost touch with the values of the American people. Transgender ideology and other woke policies have no place in our schools, period. So many of our parents and local teachers want to see change in our education system, but how can we expect our superintendents and school board members to stand up against teaching these woke concepts if they are afraid of the money and financial power coming from liberal unions responsible for pushing this type of curriculum? It’s a blatant conflict of interest and something that needs to be addressed. Our elected school representatives must be responsible to Alabama parents, not special interest groups. This will stop this conflict of interest and is no different than the state’s prohibition on members of the Alabama Public Service Commission accepting donations from the utilities they regulate. The bottom line is it’s time to get woke agendas out of our curriculum and out of our classrooms.”
This rule change only applies to Republicans. The AEA may still donate to candidates for school board, superintendent, or State Board of Education, but candidates who accept AEA contributions will have to run as Democrats or as independents.
Republican state legislators, as well as statewide and county officeholders (outside of the school boards and school superintendents), may still take AEA and NEA contributions.
The roughly 475 members Alabama Republican State Executive Committee is the largest state committee in the country. All 67 counties are represented on the state executive committee. It meets at least twice a year, holding meetings in both the summer and the winter. All 67 counties have a county Republican Party where members of that county party elect a chairman. The 67 county chairmen all are members of the state executive committee. There are members of the state executive committee elected by the Republican primary voters of each county. Additionally, the state party awards counties bonus members based on its GOP election performance. The bonus member spots are then filled by the members of the county parties (in most cases, the county party executive committee).
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