Alabama Republican Party removes four legislative candidates from primary ballot

Brian Lyman, Montgomery Advertiser
·3 min read
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Tripp Powell, who is seeking the Alabama Senate District 21 seat in the November 2022 general election, was removed from the Republican primary ballot over the weekend.
Tripp Powell, who is seeking the Alabama Senate District 21 seat in the November 2022 general election, was removed from the Republican primary ballot over the weekend.

The Alabama Republican Party removed four candidates from its primary ballot over the weekend, alleging they had supported Democrats in violation of party rules.

The party’s bylaws give the GOP's candidates committee broad discretion to disqualify candidates. But some of those removed from the ballot said Monday they thought the party had arbitrarily applied the rules.

Tripp Powell, a Tuscaloosa businessman who was challenging Sen. Gerald Allen, R-Tuscaloosa, in the GOP primary, said Monday the reason given for his removal was a $500 donation he made to Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox when he sought the Democratic nomination for governor in 2018.

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A 2007 Alabama Republican Party rule allows the removal of Republican candidates who “publicly participated in the primary election of another political party or publicly supported a nominee of another political party” if they held public office as a Republican at the time. But Powell said in an interview Monday he wasn't an elected official when he made the donation.

“I did not feel like the rules were applied fairly to my case,” he said.

A spokeswoman for the Alabama Republican Party said John Wahl, the chairman of the state party, was not available for comment Monday afternoon. The bylaws and rules of the Republican Party do not provide an explicit appeal process.

The party also removed former Rep. Elaine Beech of Chatom, who was looking to return to her southwestern Alabama House seat, which she represented as a Democrat from 2010 to 2018. Beech said Monday that the party told her she had not met a six-year waiting period for former officeholders to run as Republicans.

Alabama GOP bylaws allow the party to deny ballot access to anyone who “is not officially recognized as a Republican” and require candidates to follow a procedure for switching parties. But the rules on switching parties only mention elected officials. A 1994 “sore loser” rule imposing a six-year ban on ballot access to those who run in general elections after losing a GOP primary only appears to apply to those who run in a Republican contest. (The rule also says it "does not include all of the reasons for denying ballot access.")

“Basically I think they didn’t want me in the party, since I had been a Democrat all my life,” Beech said in a phone interview on Monday.

The party also removed Teresa Rhea, who had been challenging Sen. Andrew Jones, R-Centre, in a Gadsden-area Senate district. Jones challenged Rhea’s candidacy because she had voted on a Democratic ballot in the 2017 U.S. Senate election; that her husband, a retired judge, had served as a Democrat, and that she had attended Democratic fundraisers.

Rhea, who voted in the 2018 and 2020 Republican primaries, told The Gadsden Times that she disagreed with the party’s decision but would “respect” it.

Anson Knowles, a Republican candidate for a House District seat in Madison County, said he was removed from the ballot in part for previous work with the Libertarian Party in Madison County in 2015 and 2016. Knowles, who serves on the county’s Republican Executive Committee, said he planned to work for GOP congressional candidate Paul Sanford, a former state senator.

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“I want to contribute and do something positive for the party to demonstrate, indeed, that I am a Republican,” he said.

Powell had a little under $178,000 for his state Senate campaign as of Feb. 2, according to his most recent campaign finance report. He said Monday he was “still exploring how the next step goes,” including looking at appeals or the possibility of an independent candidacy.

“What I know is there has been a lot of support from a lot of different people saying I shouldn’t take this,” he said.

Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Brian Lyman at 334-240-0185 or blyman@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Alabama GOP removes four legislative candidates from primary ballot