Alabama Republican Party

The Alabama Republican Party is the state affiliate of the Republican Party in Alabama. It has been the dominant political party in Alabama since the late 20th century. The state party is governed by the Alabama Republican Executive Committee. The committee usually meets twice a year. As of the February 23, 2019 meeting in Birmingham, the committee is composed of 463 members. 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 5, 2018. The new committee takes office following the general election in November 2018. In addition, all 67 county GOP chairmen 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. Every two years the committee elects the state chairman, vice chairmen, the secretary and the treasurer as well as other members of a steering committee. Together, they have responsibility for administering the day-to-day operations of the party. The committee also sets election rules for the statewide Republican primary and has oversight responsibilities for the 67 county parties. The committee also elects The national committeeman (currently Paul Reynolds, since 2008) and national committeewoman (currently Vicki A. Drummond, since 2012) to serve on the Republican National Committee from Alabama. In addition, Vicki Drummond serves as the secretary of the Republican National Committee. 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 Republicans held their first statewide convention on June 4, 1867, and John Keffer, a Freedmen's Bureau agent, was made the first party's first chair. The party's entire state and congressional slate in the 1868 election was white.

When the Republican Party was first organized in 1854 as an anti-slavery party, it did not compete in southern states such as Alabama. In its first three presidential elections (including 1864, in which Alabama did not participate due to the Civil War), the party did not even distribute ballots in Alabama for its presidential candidate. (At the time, ballots were not printed by the government, but were distributed by parties for their supporters to drop into ballot boxes). After the Civil War and following Alabama's readmission to the union in 1868, Alabama was a Republican dominated state for much of the Reconstruction period due to a combination of factors including its support from north Alabama unionists, poor white farmers who had never owned slaves, and the newly enfranchised black voters. Republican Ulysses S. Grant carried the state in both the 1868 and 1872 presidential elections.

One of the organizations that became the initial Alabama GOP, the Union League, first came into north Alabama in 1863 as counties fell back under Union control during The Civil War. In early 1867, local Republicans gathered in several different meetings around the state. The first was in Moulton, on January 8 and 9 in Lawrence County, then March meetings in both Huntsville and Decatur, a gathering on March 25 in Montgomery, and then May 1 in Mobile, all for the purpose of organizing an early summer state convention to create a state Republican Party. In a simultaneous meeting with the Union League, the Republican Party of Alabama was initially organized on June 4–5, 1867. That first state convention was held in the capital city of Montgomery in the chambers of the Alabama House of Representatives. That convention was called the Union Republican Convention and consisted of 150 delegates, of whom 100 were black. Alabama Governor Robert M. Patton spoke to the convention. Francis W. Sykes of Lawrence County was elected as chairman pro tempore, and Judge William Hugh Smith of Randolph County was named permanent chairman of the convention. The convention's delegates were mostly from two groups, the Freedmen's Bureau (which included and/or represented most of Alabama's black citizens) and the Union League which represented about the 1/3 of north Alabama's white citizens who had remained as loyalists in the Civil War or had otherwise opposed secession in 1861.

The convention adopted what was considered a liberal platform for the time including "equal rights for all men without distinction of color." The convention also endorsed the platform of the National Republican Party and supported free public education for all Alabamians. The convention established the first State Republican Executive Committee of 24 members. It included 12 prominent native Alabamians whom had mostly been unionists. The other members included three carpetbaggers, five African-Americans, and four otherwise unaffiliated and unidentified individuals.

In 1868, William Hugh Smith was elected to a single two-year term as the state's first Republican governor. That same year saw Republican Andrew Applegate elected as the first-ever lieutenant governor of Alabama under the state's newly adopted constitution of 1867. That first post Civil War legislature under the new constitution was elected in February, 1868, with a 100-member House of Representatives (two-year terms) composed of 97 Republicans and 3 Democrats. The State Senate (four-year terms) was even more lopsided, with a single Democrat to its 32 Republicans. The 1868 legislature also included 27 Black Republicans, the first minority members in Alabama history. All but one were members of the House of Representatives. That same year Benjamin F. Royal (1868–1875) of Bullock County became the first black state senator in Alabama history. That Republican-controlled legislature passed a resolution on November 24, 1869, approving the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing black men the right to vote in Alabama. Governor Smith was defeated for re-election in 1870, garnering 49.5% of the vote and losing by a margin of just 1,439 votes. Although the Senate was not up for re-election that year, Democrats retook the House with 57 seats to the Republicans 38 seats, of which 19 were African-American Republicans.

After Republicans spent a single term out of the governor's office, David P. Lewis was elected as the state's second GOP governor, winning 89,020 to 78,524 over his Democratic opponent. He served from 1872 to 1874. His GOP lieutenant governor was Alexander McKinstry. During Governor Lewis' term, disputed election results produced two competing legislatures, one with a Democratic majority and the other a Republican majority. After this dispute was ultimately settled, Republicans had a 2-seat majority in the House and Democrats a 1-seat majority in the Senate. Again, this 1872 legislature included 24 African-American Republican members with 5 being in the Senate. The 1874 legislature would see only 13 Republican Senators and House membership at 40. However, this legislature would hit a high-water mark for minority representation with 33 African-American Republicans. The 1876 election would result in 18 members (7 of which were African-American) being elected to the House and only 4 Republicans to the Senate. Republicans would be reduced to just 8 members in the House in the 1878 election. Following the 1880 election Republicans held only a single seat in the Alabama House with the election of Benjamin M. Long from Walker County. In fact, Walker County had a strong Republican Party for much of the remainder of the 19th century.