Odle defends actions criticizes Alabama Republican party steering committee for his removal from the ballot

February 7, 2026 – OPELIKA – Former Republican Party candidate for Alabama Lieutenant Governor released an open letter response to his removal from the Alabama Republican Party ballot by the 21-member steering committee.

"This is my response to being denied ballot access in 2026 due to my alleged violation of the "sore loser" by-law in 2022 when I ran for Governor against Kay Ivey in the primary and then ran a write-in campaign as "the only Republican still in the race," said Odle.

"First, I admit that when I announced my campaign for Governor of Alabama on September 17, 2020, I did not know much about the inner workings of the ALGOP," said Odle. "I came out publicly for Trump when there were still 17 people in the Republican primary for the presidency. I received a lot of attacks from fellow Republicans at that time for my support of the "outsider.""

"I decided to run for Governor in 2020, when I saw Governor Kay Ivey show a blatant disregard for the 1st Amendment during the Covid-19 bioweapon attack," said Odle.

Odle criticized what he called the "moderate/Bush/Rove" RINO Republicans."

"I saw them oppose HB31 and other freedom-focused legislation," said Odle. "I discovered that Kay Ivey had taken over $100,000 from a Soros-funded PAC in 2018 and that she had appointed eight Democrat judges during her time in office. Ivey raised our gas tax which is something clearly contrary to the ALGOP platform. Then in a truly Democrat move she blamed the spread of Covid on the unvaccinated people in Alabama."

Odle and seven other GOP challengers were easily defeated in the 2022 primary by Governor Ivey without a runoff despite her being out spent. Odle received 1.8% of the vote in results that Odle still disputes. This angered Odle, who said there were "clear election irregularities in the May 24, 2022, Republican primary."

"Those election irregularities included 30,000 votes moving from Kay Ivey to Tim James in real time, then five minutes later 30,000 votes moving from Tim James back to Kay Ivey," said Odle. "My vote totals froze for two hours which is a statistical impossibility and all of the candidates in that election had less votes on the morning of May 25th than CNN had reported at 11:45PM EST on the night of the election. Where did those votes go? Cyber Security expert Clay Parikh did the analysis on the ALGOP primary election of 2022 and found the irregular ballot dump for Kay Ivey which was identical to the ballot dumps for Biden in 2020."

Odle admits he did engage in a write-in campaign in 2022 – the charge that the Steering Committee removed him from the 2026 ballot for.

"The main purpose of my Republican write-in campaign was to do an election integrity test," said Odle. "We asked people who planned to write-in my name on the ballot for governor to also take a picture of them with their ballot (which is legal to do in Alabama) and text it to a secure number so we could compare the number of ballot selfies to the number reported by the Secretary of State."

That effort failed. Odle claims he believed he was interpreting Republican Party rules correctly when he launched his failed 2022 write-in campaign.

"Before I began the write-in campaign, I consulted the Alabama Secretary of State website and state law concerning doing a write-in campaign," said Odle. "John Merrill's direction on the website was that state law allows a primary "loser" to run a write-in campaign as long as the person does not change political parties.".... "I was unaware of the ALGOP "sore loser" by-law. It was not until I was well into the write-in campaign that I was informed about the "sore loser" by-law."

Odle said he never wanted to be Lieutenant Governor, but that God wanted him to run.

"As a very conservative Christian pastor with a church and ministry school, I did not have a desire to run for office again nor did I plan to. However, in 2024, I felt the Lord Jesus begin to lead me to run for Lt. Governor," said Odle. "I took quite a while praying about it as I asked the Lord for confirmation of His direction. That confirmation arrived in my office at the church shortly thereafter. It was the Black Robe Regiment Award from LTC and former Florida GOP Congressman Allen West. It was a beautifully engraved and decorated Cherokee Tomahawk that had my name on one side. He awarded me this after he learned about my very conservative, Christian stances and my courage to run for Governor of Alabama in 2022."

Odle announced his candidacy in 2024 and has spoken to several Republican groups around the state during his 15 months of campaigning.

"Not one time did I ever receive an email or phone call from anyone on the ALGOP steering committee stating that I would not be allowed to qualify for the Republican ballot due to alleged violation of the "sore loser" by-law," said Odle.

Odle said that he also talked with then ALGOP Chairman John Wahl.

"Chairman Wahl told me that "sore loser" rule was not made to keep true, conservative Republicans like me off the ballot, but it was to keep Democrats from getting on the Republican ballot," said Odle. "I was also told by Chairman Wahl that if someone did challenge my ballot access, I would get a hearing to make my case to receive an exemption to the "sore loser" rule. Wahl told me that he supported me being on the ballot in 2026."

Wahl resigned as Chairman of the Alabama Republican Party on January 23 and qualified to run for Lt. Governor against Odle.

"Sadly, my foray into Alabama politics as a very conservative, Christian pastor has been met with unfairness, attempts to silence me, censorship, religious discrimination, disregard for the law, unethical practices, and clear double-standards from my own party," said Odle.

The Steering committee removed Odle from the ballot but dismissed challenges filed against Wahl and Senator Tommy Tuberville as "frivolous" without holding any formal hearings.

"To deny me ballot access while ignoring far more grievous violations of state law and the party platform committed by other Republicans is clear hypocrisy and discrimination," said Odle.

Odle has appealed his removal from the ballot, but that appeal will be considered by the same 21-member body that removed him a week ago.

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