Alabama Republican Party
|
|
---|---|
Chairperson | Terry Lathan |
Senate leader | Del Marsh |
House leader | Mac McCutcheon |
Ideology |
Conservatism Fiscal conservatism Social conservatism |
National affiliation | Republican Party |
Seats in the Upper House |
26 / 35
|
Seats in the Lower House |
72 / 105
|
Website | |
www.algop.org |
The Alabama Republican Party is the state affiliate of the national Republican Party in Alabama. It is the dominant (or majority) political party in Alabama. The state party is governed by the Alabama Republican Executive Committee. The committee usually meets just twice a year. Composed of more than 400 members, it is easily the largest Executive Committee in the entire nation. Most of the committee's members are elected in district elections across Alabama. The district members are elected in the Republican Primary once every four years with the most recent election for the committee having been on June 3, 2014. In addition, all 67 County GOP Chairman have automatic seats as voting members. The State Chairman can appoint 10 members. Each County Committee can appoint bonus members (maximum of 5 per county) based on a formula that theoretically could add 312 seats, although that formula currently calls for only about 50 seats.
The Alabama Republican Executive Committee has several important functions. It is responsible for electing the State Chairman every two years as well as all other officers who run the day-to-day operations of the party. The committee sets election rules for the state party and has oversight responsibilities over all county parties. The Committee also elects The National Committeeman (Paul Reynolds since 2008) and National Committeewoman (Vicki A. Drummond since 2012) to serve on the Republican National Committee from Alabama. Once every four years the committee selects the GOP slate for U.S. Presidential Electors and chooses alternate delegates to the GOP National Convention.
The Chairperson of the Alabama Republican Party is Terry Lathan of Theodore. She became the second woman to serve as Chairman of the Alabama GOP upon her election on February 21, 2015. She has twenty-five years of active service to the Republican Party including a recent stint as Mobile County Republican Executive Committee Chair.
The Secretary of the Alabama Republican Party is Lynn Robinson of Winston County and the State Treasurer is David Wheeler of Jefferson County who were also both initially elected to their respective posts on February 21, 2015. The three most recent Chairman were former Alabama State Senator Bill Armistead (2011-2015) of Shelby County; State Representative Mike Hubbard (R–Auburn) (2007-2011); and Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh (2005-2007) of Montgomery, who was the first female Chairman. The longest serving chairman in state party history was Claude O. Vardaman of Birmingham who held the post for twenty years from 1942-1962. The first Chairman of the Alabama GOP was John C. Keffer (1867) of Montgomery.