MONTGOMERY — Members of the Alabama Republican Party (ALGOP) State Executive Committee passed a bylaw change at a meeting on Saturday, mostly restricting Republican elected officials from appointing Democrats.
The bylaw change states, “Beginning January 1, 2027, any Republican elected official shall appoint only Republicans to fill vacancies for all partisan elected offices that may be filled by such official. Failure to heed this admonition will be viewed negatively by the Candidate Committee. However, if such official is unable to locate a qualified Republican to appoint to a position, the official shall request recommendations from the Chairman of the Alabama Republican Party and shall allow 21 days for a recommendation to be made. If no qualified individual can be located and recommended, the Candidate Committee shall not view said appointment negatively.”
“Republican elected officials are strongly encouraged to appoint Republicans to fill all various positions whenever possible and as allowable by law,” it adds.
Republicans control every statewide constitutional office in Alabama and have supermajorities in the House and Senate. Most appointments made to unexpired judicial, legislative, commissions, or local offices go to Republicans, but several judicial nominations by Gov. Kay Ivey have gone to Democrats.
Suzelle Josey, a State Executive Committee member who authored the bylaw change, told reporters on Saturday, “It should be the position of any elected Republican official.”
“Obviously, if you’re a Republican, if you have taken Republican support, if you have depended on people to get out there to knock on doors for you, taken money, their time, their treasure…once you have the opportunity and being elected as a Republican, we would certainly expect you to be appointing Republicans when you have the opportunity,” she continued.
ALGOP chairman John Wahl told reporters, “It’s a result of the committee members seeing the shift in areas that have traditionally been Democrat areas.”
“Areas that may have been where you’d appoint a Democrat, we want to see Republicans appointed where they can then go out and argue and debate their values to the public and have a chance of being elected in those areas,” he added. “The message is that we’re very serious. We want to see Republicans appoint Republicans and we want to see the chance for those Republican appointments to go to the voters and ask for the chance to continue serving in these areas.”
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