Republican John Wahl is expected to officially announce his campaign for Alabama lieutenant governor today after qualifying just before Friday’s deadline.
Wahl tells the Daily News he wants an honest and positive campaign. Early on, he’s having to address questions about his own history at the polls.
Chairman of the Alabama Republican Party since 2021, Wahl qualified for the already crowded GOP primary on Friday, the day after President Donald Trump unexpectedly endorsed him. He stepped down from the party leadership role that day.
Wahl’s entrance into the race for the state’s second-highest office was quickly met with criticism from a race frontrunner and current Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen. He posted a video on several social media platforms Sunday night.
“I’ve worked hard to make sure our state has the strictest voter ID laws in the country to protect our elections,” said Allen, who was the first to announce a bid for lieutenant governor early last year. He’s led fundraising with more than $1 million on hand at the end of December.
“My opponent, Nehemiah John Wahl, admitted he tried to vote using a homemade fake ID,” the former lawmaker and probate judge aid. “We cannot be more different. I, like President Trump, support voter ID laws while my opponent breaks them.
“… This is why elections matter.”
Nehemiah Ezekiel Wahl is the name on a Tennessee driver’s license Wahl gave Morgan County law enforcement during a traffic stop in 2023, al.com previously reported.
The ID in question is one Wahl presented to a Limestone County poll worker in 2020. It had Wahl’s picture on it and identifies him as a regional press secretary for the Office of State Auditor. Al.com previously reported that the badge was not state-issued. Then-Secretary of State John Merrill and Allen later forwarded complaints about the ID to Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall.
Jim Zeigler was state auditor at the time and confirmed to ADN on Monday he approved the identification card.
“The claim that the ID from the Auditor’s Office used by John Wahl was homemade or fake is simply false,” Zeigler, who filed paperwork Friday to run for the Public Service Commission, said. “I approved the ID as State Auditor, and it was professionally printed by a vendor — not homemade.”
Zeigler said his office was badly understaffed and had no spokesperson or media relations person.
“We needed to email news releases,” Zeigler said. “John Wahl, a private citizen, generously agreed, at my request, to email the releases at no cost. The e-mailing service would not allow anyone to send an email for a government office unless they had a news ID. The press secretary ID worked, and I heard nothing about this for years.”
Wahl on Monday told ADN he used that ID to vote in 2020 because he’d left his wallet at home, but had the auditor’s ID in his computer bag. He said the facts are “clear and well documented.”
“My record on voter ID and election integrity speaks for itself. I have consistently supported voter ID laws, worked to strengthen election integrity measures, and personally helped organize and deploy more than 200 trained poll watchers to Georgia to help defend President Trump’s vote in the last election.”
The GOP May 19 primary ballot will also include Alabama Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries Rick Pate, Pat Bishop, George Childress, Dean Oden, Dr. Stewart Hill Tankersley and Nicole Jones Wadsworth.
Democrats Rep. Phillip Ensler and Darryl D. Perryman qualified with their party.
“This race should be about ideas, leadership, and earning the trust of the people—not political games or rewriting history,” Wahl said. “I am committed to running a positive, honest campaign, telling the truth about my record, and sharing a clear vision for how we can make life better for the people of Alabama.”