The Republican National Convention will be in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, next year to select the Republican nominee for President. On Saturday, the Alabama Republican Party State Executive Committee passed its Presidential Preference Primary Resolution – which details how Alabama’s presidential delegates will be allocated for the 2024 Republican Presidential Primary. Much of that remains the same. The major change is that Alabama’s Republican primary voters will still pick the candidates for President of the United States but will not get to pick the delegates pledged to that candidate.
In past presidential elections, there were dozens of names on the ballot for voters to select from pledged to each presidential primary candidate. The winning delegates for the candidates with enough votes to be awarded delegates would then represent Alabama at the Republican National Convention. There won’t be any delegates for voters to vote on in the 2024 Republican primary ballot. Voters can still choose which presidential candidate they prefer: Donald Trump, Mike Pence, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Tim Scott, Asa Hutchison, Chris Christie, etc. The roughly 475-member Republican State Executive will decide who the 50 delegates to the convention are.
State Representative Matt Simpson (R-Daphne) introduced the resolution.
“Delegates to the convention don’t just nominate the President. They also serve on the rules and platform committees,” Simpson said. “This is party business.”
“The best people to make the decisions on how to grow up in the party is to reward the people that have been in the party,” Simpson said. “We know better than anybody who are the workers, who supported the party, who are the Republicans.”
“The general public really doesn’t have a clue about the people on the ballot,” Simpson said.
State Auditor Andrew Sorrell, who is also the State Executive Committee’s bylaws committee chairman, said that the delegates will still have to pledge to the candidate that they represent before the primary.
Alabama will have 50 delegates at the RNC Convention in Wisconsin next year. The Chairman will be one delegate, as will the National Committeeman and the National Committeeman. Those positions are presently held by John Wahl, Paul Reynolds, and Vicki Drummond. The executive committee will then select 26 statewide at-large delegates. Alabama’s seven congressional districts will have three delegates each for a total of twenty-one delegates allocated by congressional district.
The 2024 Presidential Preference Primary Resolution keeps the same delegate allotments as previous cycles. Details include the following:
A candidate must receive a minimum of 20% of the vote on either the statewide or congressional district level to be awarded any delegates.
The 26 statewide at-large Republican delegates will be awarded to the first-place candidate if that candidate receives over 50% of the vote in the state’s Super Tuesday primary.
There will be three delegates from each of the state’s seven congressional districts, for a total of 21 delegates.
The congressional district delegates will also be awarded to the first-place candidate that receives over 50% of the vote in each of the congressional districts.
If no candidate receives over 50% at either the statewide or the congressional district level, the delegates will be awarded proportionally based on primary election results.
The state executive committee voted 72% to 28% to approve the bylaw amendment.
Since the Republican primary will be on March 5, presumably after the ALGOP’s winter meeting tentatively scheduled for February, there will likely be a special meeting of the State Executive Committee in the Spring to select the delegates.
Other items passed at the Saturday meeting include:
A ban on campaign donations from the National Education Association (NEA) and its affiliates – including the Alabama Education Association (AEA) – for all Republican school board and superintendent candidates.
A resolution condemning President Joe Biden for circumventing the Hyde Amendment and using taxpayer money to fund abortion-related expenses and supporting Senator Tommy Tuberville for standing up to the Biden Administration over its flawed policy.
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