By Staff
Alabama Political Reporter
The Jackson County GOP recently welcomed former Democrat Coroner John David Jordan as a member of the Republican Party.
Jackson County Republican Party Chairman Allen Keller made the following statement regarding the new GOP member.
“The Jackson County Republican Party is pleased to announce that Coroner John David Jordan, former Democrat, was voted into the Republican Party during our meeting on September 21,” Keller said. “John David is a fine man and has an excellent reputation as coroner. We are so excited to have him on board as a Republican!”
Just a couple of decades ago there were very few Republicans at the county level in Alabama.
While Alabama would vote for GOP Presidential candidates like George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, and Barry Goldwater and Republicans won a number of Alabama congressional seats as early as 1964, Democrats dominated at the state and county level. In 1980 Admiral Jeremiah Denton became the first Republican to win a U.S. Senate seat from Alabama since Reconstruction in the 1870s.
In 1986 Cullman County Probate Judge Guy Hunt became the first Republican Governor in over a century. In 1994 Circuit Judge Perry Hooper Sr. became the first Republican to win Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in the twentieth century. Despite these gains the Alabama Democratic Party still controlled county courthouses all over the state. That remained the case as recently as ten years ago.
In 2010, under the leadership of Alabama Republican Party Chairman Mike Hubbard, the Republican Party took every statewide office and won super majorities in both Houses of the State Legislature. The Alabama Democratic Party still had most of the county commissioners and sheriffs in the state.
Under Alabama Republican Party Chairman Bill Armistead, the party began targeting sheriffs, circuit clerks, and probate judges. Conservative Democrats began switching parties. Where they didn’t, voters who were increasingly voting straight Republican and replaced a number of Democratic officeholders in the 2014 elections.
The Alabama Republican Party notes that today 59 percent of all partisan elected officials in Alabama are Republicans. Terry Lathan is the current Alabama Republican Party Chairman.
