Former Alabama Republican Party Chair John Wahl speaks with reporters on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026 at a news conference at AL GOP headquarters announcing his run for lieutenant governor. (Ralph Chapoco/Alabama Reflector)
Former Alabama Republican Party Chair John Wahl officially announced his candidacy for lieutenant governor Tuesday, just a few days after President Donald Trump’s endorsed Wahl for the office, which he was not publicly seeking.
Wahl joins a slate of other Republicans seeking their party’s nomination for the office during the primary election in May. Wahl resigned as chair of the state’s Republican Party on Friday shortly after he qualified.
“This campaign is going to be rough,” Wahl said during a news conference at Alabama Republican Party headquarters in Hoover. “And it is important for me to stay focused on the things that are most important to the people of the state.”
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The lieutenant governor becomes governor if the sitting governor dies or is otherwise removed from office, but has very few powers beyond that. Most of the official duties involve presiding over the Senate.
Wahl was not a candidate until Trump on Thursday, the day before the end of qualifying, unexpectedly called on him to enter the race.
“For me, that was one of the honors of a lifetime,” Wahl said. “I have worked hard in the trenches and fought for people’s rights and freedoms. I have been a competent and bold supporter of the America First agenda.”
Wahl said he would remain in his position as chair of the Alabama Public Library Service, where he has advocated for library policies that critics call censorship.
“I believe he has done great harm to the libraries in this state and maligned the librarians of this state, so I will not support him,” Ron Snider, a member of the APLS board and a critic of Wahl, said in an interview on Monday.
Snider first accused Wahl of using his position as chair for political gain during the APLS board meeting in July after Wahl sent a letter to libraries stating that they must restrict library materials that deal with gender ideology to minors.
Snider accused Wahl a second time at the APLS board meeting in October after he said that representatives from the state’s Republican Party sent out letters to its members that encouraged them to support the administrative code changes that Minton and Wahl proposed to restrict books that dealt with gender ideology.
Wahl said Snider’s remarks are disingenuous.
“Protecting our children from sexually explicit content is not something I would ever welcome,” he said. “It is not something that is political for me. This is something that is foundational.”
Amy Minton, an ally of Wahl’s on the APLS Board, is seeking the Republican nomination for a state Senate district in Etowah County.
Wahl did not announce publicly that he was considering campaigning for the lieutenant governor’s office at the time of Trump’s social media post.
During the news conference, Wahl highlighted several key issues that he would prioritize, from energy independence and reducing taxes for individuals and families in the state, to improving Alabama’ education system and protecting children from harmful content in the classroom.
In qualifying for the race, Wahl joins seven other candidates, including Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen, who has called Wahl “Nehemiah Wahl,” his legal name, and accused him of abandoning his obligations to the Alabama GOP. In a Facebook video released over the weekend, Allen criticized Wahl for using a “homemade” voter ID to cast a ballot.
“We cannot be more different,” Allen said in the video. “I, like President Trump, support voter ID laws while my opponent breaks them.”
al.com reported in 2022 that Wahl cast a ballot using an ID made by then-State Auditor Jim Zeigler, which former Secretary of State John Merrill said was not a valid form of photo ID. Zeigler told al.com over the weekend that he approved the ID and had it professionally printed by a vendor.
“His comments that I somehow voted with a fake or homemade ID are ridiculous,” Wahl said at the news conference.
Wahl did not respond directly to the rest of Allen’s remarks during the news conference and said that “this is politics. Your opponents are going to go negative.”
He said it is more important that he speak directly to voters and explain to them his view on the issues.
“The party will be just fine without me, but I appreciate him thinking that I am not replaceable in this role, and that my vacancy hurts everyone,” Wahl said of Allen’s comments. “I appreciate he has so much confidence in my leadership abilities as party chairman that he thinks the loss of one person would have that kind of impact on the entire state.
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Author: Ralph Chapoco