Dean Odle joins the Heart of Dixie Podcast

June 19, 2025 – Lieutenant Governor candidate Dean Odle joined the Heart of Dixie Podcast with Brandon Moseley and Harry Still III to discuss his campaign for the Republican nomination for Alabama Lieutenant Governor and other topics.

Odle is a pastor and school master in Lee County. He has garnered a lot of publicity in this race. We asked him about his biblical views from which he bases his alternative takes on subjects like astronomy, history, and astrophysics.

"There is figurative and symbolic language in the Bible, but it's usually talking about something that's literal," said Rev. Odle. "It's just giving a word picture, illustration of something, and if it is clearly just an allegory, it'll say it is, or it's absolutely clear. Otherwise, we have to take the scriptures literally, and of course, like for instance, scholars for a long time said that King David was a mythical character, he never really existed, and that was the position of liberal Bible seminaries for many, many years, until we up the David Stele that proved, you know, it was written in stone from that time period, 1000 BC, that King David was a mighty king at that time. And so a lot of times, again, there are liberal theologians that like to throw out the terms figurative language or metaphors or whatever, figures of speech, when they don't believe that the Bible to be true. So that's just a fact. I'm really a Bible, as you would say, a Bible-believing Christian, first and foremost."

Odle insisted that he is a conservative.

"I'm a conservative through and through," said Odle. "I mean, I always have been. Economically, socially, in every way. That's kind of been my problem with a lot of the Republicans. Not all, but a lot of the Republicans that have been in office in Alabama over the last several decades have not really held true to conservative principles like truly lowering And, you know, I mean, even when it comes to, you know, getting dependent on government, federal government money and stuff like that, federal programs, you know, which are a lot are just socialism and how really what ticked me off big time for years is the fact that it was the Republicans that blocked the repeal of common core, even after they discovered that it was a failing curriculum and hurting our education system here."

The United States is poised to go to war with Iran if they don't agree to halt their nuclear program. Odle brought up the issue of Islam.

"I know a lot of people say, oh, well, there's these radical Muslims, and then there's just the peaceful Muslims," said Odle. "There's no such thing. A peaceful Muslim is a Muslim who is not practicing the Koran or the Hadith. The ones that practice the Koran and the Hadith and follow Muhammad are the ones that are following the religion of Islam and they are a problem now whether it's Shiites or Sunnis it's still the same belief system and Again, they're not going to ever assimilate into a Western Democracy or a Republic I should say they're not going to do that because their very religion demands that they create a caliphate and that caliphate is ruled by them and just like the Muslims even the affluent Muslims here in America say they're not here to assimilate they are here to take over and we see that they've done it already in France and England and everywhere they go so again this this is a religious issue. Now I agree that I would not want to see Iran with a nuclear weapon I agree we need to stop that somebody does but because of their religious beliefs and what they want to do to Israel and the United States if they had a nuclear weapon; but I do not, I would never go into a protracted war and put troops in the country because it's ridiculous, because they're just going to go back. We can set them back technologically, but we don't have to invade. We don't have to stay there because we're not going to change them."

Odle – a Protestant minister – also took a shot at Catholics.

"The greatest persecutors of true Christianity of true Christians Bible believing Christians for Centuries was the political church called the Roman Catholic Church," Odle claimed. "The Roman Catholic Church is in the Bible as the great whore of Mystery Babylon and she is defined as being drunk with the blood of the and the martyrs of Jesus and it is an absolute fact of history and I know this history like the back of my hand

Alabama has the second most secure election processes in the country – behind only Tennessee. Odle however remains deeply skeptical.

"Our problem and let me just go and tell you this is a big thing and y'all can disagree I don't really care; but this is the truth," said Odle. "This right here all that he's doing and I'm running against that guy (Secretary of State Wes Allen) for lieutenant governor, but what even if I wasn't this pisses me off and it pissed me off with John Merrill (a former Secretary of State) is that bottom line, we know that there's a problem with the machines, ES&S, Dominion, Smartmatic, all of them. All the CEOs of those companies before Congress have admitted under oath that their machines have either major components or nearly all completely made in China. Now, these are computer electronic equipment made in China that is conducting our elections. On top of that when let's just say that the voting machine is not connected to the Internet, but we found out that it was through Haines v. Merrill because Merrill had to back up and admit the truth under oath."

Odle faces a crowded Lieutenant Governor field with Wes Allen, Rick Pate, Dr. Nicole Jones Wadsworth, Patrick Bishop, George Childress already all having announced and more candidates rumored to be running. Odle said that there is likely to be an effort to keep him off the ballot.

"There's of course going to be an attempt that I've been told to keep me off the ballot because I ran last time," Odle said. "Now, John Wahl (the Chairman of the Alabama Republican Party) was on Jeff Poor (a radio show in Mobile) and he explained that I can request an exception hearing about that, which I'm going to do. And of course, John Wahl told me personally on the phone that that rule is never meant to keep a true Republican and Republican off the ballot, it was to keep Democrats off the ballot. So if there's ever a case for somebody to get the exception, it would be me. So there's a path that I'm going to follow to deal with that."

This week Chairman Wahl sent a letter to the members of the Republican Executive Committee in which he explained that he might seek a rule change so that he can seek a leave of absence as Chairman to run again Dean and the other Republicans in the Lt. Gov race.

"In this situation that they're going to have to change a rule," Odle said. "So what they said, they're gonna have to change one of the bylaws for him to just take a leave of absence to run. So again, we're moving the goalpost in the middle of the thing."

Odle also charged that the Federation of College Republicans of Alabama rigged the straw poll at their convention by leaving him off the ballot.

"I'm just sick and tired, though, of the duplicity within the Republican Party," Odle said. "And they talk about being the party of freedom, the party of the rule of law, you know, and I've been asking, like, for instance, recently, the College Republican, the Federation or College Federation of Republicans, whatever they call them, they did a straw poll and purposefully left me off of it, even though I was the first first declared official candidate for lieutenant governor and a former candidate for governor. They left me off but put John Merrill on there - who's just a maybe. And they left me off that straw poll and it's just another way of picking favorites. They actually pick their little favorites and then they craft the rules and they craft the situation to help who they want. And to tell you the honest truth, the majority of the Alabama Republican Party does not want an outsider. They don't want true conservatives, and they certainly don't want true Christians."

The Heart of Dixie Podcast is cohosted by Alabama Gazette lead reporter and content manager Brandon Moseley and Baldwin County Attorney Harry Still III.