He hasn't taken options off the table, but th- does that come up in these, um, these political discussions when you're out and about?

It absolutely does.

Well, it depends on the area that I'm in, but when I'm around Montgomery and when I'm around, uh, Birmingham, absolutely does.

You know, the two common factors that Birmingham and Montgomery have is they're ran by a Democratic party, and their mayors are part of the Democratic party.

So what is Doug Jones going to bring to the table that's gonna be different than what those two gentlemen are doing as we speak, and it's the highest crime that we've seen in the history of the state of Alabama? It's gonna be the same, but instead of just in two cities, it's gonna be on a statewide level, and that's concerning.

Uh, that's extremely concerning because those policies that are in place right now for those two cities are not working.

That leadership is not working, and I agree with Coach 100% that we need to bring in strong conservative policy and clean up our cities and make sure that our citizens are safe.

And I, I don't want to lose sight of that, and I want to give credit where credit is due, but th- there's still some, some loose ends to tie up and getting, you know, at least putting some checks on keeping some of this wokeism or whatever from seeping into the state.

But d- does, does that come up in these, um, these political discussions when you're out and about?

It absolutely does.

Well, it depends on the area that I'm in, but when I'm around Montgomery and when I'm around, uh, Birmingham, absolutely does.

You know, the two common factors that Birmingham and Montgomery have is they're ran by a Democratic party, and their mayors are part of the Democratic party.

So what is Doug Jones going to bring to the table that's gonna be different than what those two gentlemen are doing as we speak, and it's the highest crime that we've seen in the history of the state of Alabama? It's gonna be the same, but instead of just in two cities, it's gonna be on a statewide level, and that's concerning.

Uh, that's extremely concerning because those policies that are in place right now for those two cities are not working.

That leadership is not working.

And I, I don't wanna lose sight of that, and I wanna give credit where credit is due, but th- there's still some, some loose ends to tie up in getting, you know, at least putting some checks on keeping some of this wokeism or whatever from seeping into the state.

And could the voters be assured that the Republican supermajority that's voting for, you know, whether a Republican nominee, an elected official, could be the elected official, can we trust that- ... everything would be fair, and that that would be done in the correct way?

Oh, absolutely.

Yeah, so, uh, a, a voting citizen would file a, a contest to the Speaker of the House.

I think it's a $5,000 bond.

Um, at that point, then we would nominate, uh, committee members on the floor in the Senate and House to conduct the hearing for that individual, that candidate.

Not candidate at the time, the officeholder at the time.

And then, you know, they would look at the evidence.

I, Republican leadership has been very quiet about this, and I'm curious if you would like to make a comment.

And could the voters be assured that the Republican supermajority that's voting for, you know, whether a Republican nominee, an elected official could be the elected official, can we trust that everything would be fair, and that that would be done in the correct way?

Oh, absolutely.

Yeah, so, uh, a, a voting citizen would file a, a contest to the Speaker of the House.

I think it's a $5,000 bond.

Um, at that point, then we would nominate, uh, committee members on the floor in the Senate and House to conduct the hearing for that individual, that candidate.

Not candidate at the time, the officeholder at the time.

And then, you know, they would look at the evidence.

I, Republican leadership has been very quiet about this, and I'm curious if you would like to make a comment.

You gotta feel pretty good about where the statewide ballot is.

Oh, 100%.

We also have Corey Hill for ag, and we have Andrew Sorrell for auditor.

Um, yes, we've got, we've got high quality people across the board.

And, you know, just from the gubernatorial seat in itself, we know what Coach brings to the table.

We know his strong conservative stances.

We know he's not gonna back down when a fight comes his way, and he's on the right side of things.

But you guys, uh, you know, Republicans still have the numbers here.

You've got to feel pretty good about where the statewide ballot is.

100%.

We also have Corey Hill for ag, and we have Andrew Sorrell for auditor.

Yes, we've got high-quality people across the board.

And, you know, just from the gubernatorial seat in itself, we know what Coach brings to the table.

We know his strong conservative stances.

We know he's not going to back down when a fight comes his way, and he's on the right side of things.

But you guys, you know, Republicans still have the numbers here.

Is that what your polling is showing? Are you even paying attention to polling? What are your thoughts on polling and what do we need to continue to do? Not just in Alabama, but across the country so we can keep the House and the Senate and win in these midterms.

Yeah, so our polling, we've got good data on Representative Rhett Marcus.

He is in good shape.

We've got boots on the ground.

We are door knocking left and right in that district and also throughout the whole entire state.

But just having people getting energized about making sure your voice is heard, getting to the ballots November 3rd is most important.

May 19th, we were complacent as Republicans.

Have you spoken to Bobby Singleton about his new role? What do you think will be different in the Democratic Party? And has it adjusted your plan at all?

What are other good reasons why people should vote in these midterms for the slate of candidates that we have? Because, um, we're watching them, and they are working so hard to earn the people of Alabama's vote.

Yeah, that's most important.

All of our candidates are door-knocking as well with, uh, the volunteers that we've got, and our, our regional directors and our field reps, they're out there listening to constituents.

And that's the first question is, you know, "What's your concerns in this district, in this area?" And it changes from Madison County all the way down to Mobile.

It changes.

And it...

Most popular response is affordability.

[laughs]

How does the ALGOP play a role in supporting those candidates and ultimately getting them to victory?

Yeah, absolutely.

So we do a lot of polling.

We figure out where candidates are at, number one, and then see how much effort we need to put behind that candidate.

If it's mailers, if it's whatever it is, door knockers, we've got a lot of ground troops on the ground right now, door knocking throughout the whole entire state.

We don't brag about it too much, but I like to, that's how you make a difference, is getting out, talking to the citizens of our state, figuring out, number one, what their interests and what their concerns are, and then making sure that we are there for them to know that Alabama Republican Party is going to be there for them.

Much less with the candidates, we do mailers, we do phone banking, we do everything that you could possibly think of with a campaign.

Could you kind of make the case for why you think that would be good to implement? I guess it would be next election cycle.

So very excited that Al Gopp is in good hands, but talk a little bit about the journey to becoming the chairman.

Yeah, so we were in session.

I was House Majority Leader at that point.

And John Wall decided to run for Lieutenant Governor after the famous endorsement he received from the president, right? So I think all of us were in shock at that point.

And then I had people calling me, party members, just asking questions about certain things.

And, you know, what would you do? And And I didn't think nothing about it.

I never thought about running for that role.

But it was like, what, 10%? Nowhere near what it should have been.

Talk a little bit about that.

yeah man so july 31st in montgomery alabama at the renaissance hotel we've got algops 250th celebration it's basically our summer dinner our staff and annie who's over our events coordinator she has been working her tail off she's next to me right now actually plugging in going over everything so We are super excited.

We've got Congressman Tim Burchett from Tennessee, absolute star.

He's a he's a hoot.

We got Congressman Brandon Gill, who is from Texas.

And if you have not heard these individuals on social media, just destroy them.

people in committees i would recommend do so before the dinner we got brylan hollahan who is going to um we're going to literally start our project future generation we got pastor travis johnson that is going to be a part of the program from y'all's neck of the woods and then we got coach bruce pearl and we've got katie brett senator katie brett and the main highlight of the event is going to be our future governor state of alabama coach tupperville

It feels like it's definitely going to be different than what we've seen probably the last decade or so.

choose a really crappy one and we might have a chance to win.

Exactly.

And that is literally what we're seeing right now.

The effects that they can have in these congressional districts, they're not going to pick the best candidate.

They're going to vote for the worst ones to make a difference and change from our starting lineup.

We have a starter in all these races that they're scared of.

So what they're going to do is they're going to vote for the person who is not going to do well, and they can be successful.

So what else are you looking ahead and hoping to get done next session?

choose a really crappy one and we might have a chance to win.

Exactly.

And that is literally what we're seeing right now.

The effects that they can have in these congressional districts, they're not going to pick the best candidate.

They're going to vote for the worst ones to make a difference and change from our starting lineup.

We have a starter in all these races that they're scared of.

So what they're going to do is they're going to vote for the person who is not going to do well, and they can be successful.

So what else are you looking ahead and hoping to get done next session?

Why is this important? It's not just a reason to go out and shoot off fireworks or imbibe or whatever you do on your Fourth of July, but there really is something you've got to at least pay homage to.

Absolutely.

You know, Jeff, and I'm guilty as well.

All of us take our freedom for granted.

And the privileges that our armed forces provide for us every single day as a United States citizen, there's people who are literally watching our backs.

24 7 to make sure we're safe make sure we live in a free country and it's hard for us because we've never experienced it or we've never seen it but there's a lot of blood and sacrifices that goes into what we get to live every single day We get to pick our religion.

We get to vote for the candidates we want to vote for.

hey before we get you out of here folks want to get more involved with the alabama republican party know about some of the big events you got coming up how could they do so

So how is this different than the first go around?

Yeah, so the first go-around, which I wasn't chair at that particular time, but the first go-around was McPheeters challenged his ballot access.

When you challenge somebody's ballot access, there's two parts to that.

One part is they stand before the steering committee, and they basically give them evidence, and if the steering committee sees fit, then they go forward with the hearing.

In McPheeters' case... and keep in mind i was not there but he did not present enough evidence to the steering committee that they felt comfortable moving forward and so forth you know that it stopped right there with uh with that ballot challenge um as you know some other ones did not they presented enough evidence and it went forward to the hearing but uh... with coaches situation he did not present any evidence from my understandings to the steering committee and that's why it was thrown out and This one we'll see.

He'll have to present evidence to the steering committee and to me in our mock courtroom, and we will go from there.

I think Coach's team is, from my understandings, they are looking forward to getting this over with and excited about moving forward and Coach being the next governor of our state.

Does that make sense? Yeah.

So how is this different than the first go around?

Yeah, so the first go-around, which I wasn't chair at that particular time, but the first go-around was McPheeters challenged his ballot access.

When you challenge somebody's ballot access, there's two parts to that.

One part is they stand before the steering committee, and they basically give them evidence, and if the steering committee sees fit, then they go forward with the hearing.

In McPheeters' case...

And keep in mind, I was not there, but he did not present enough evidence to the steering committee that they felt comfortable moving forward.

And so forth, you know, that it stopped right there with with that ballot challenge.

Does that make sense? Yeah.