Alabama Republican Party Chairman John Wahl headlined a “Challenge the Chairman” event on Tuesday with UA College Republicans where he invited UA students on the Quad to debate and converse with him.
Junior political science major and chairman of the UA College Republicans Riley McArdle helped organize the event.
“John and I and the party have a really close relationship, I’ve worked with them for two years. He’s had this idea for years so I just called him one night and said ‘we really need to make this happen,’” McArdle said.
A running theme throughout Wahl’s conversations was his emphasis on the importance of getting young people involved in politics.
“I think young people need to be more involved. We’re going to have to pay off the national debt someday,” Wahl said. “We’re going to be the ones who are inheriting this mess.”
Education, immigration and the economy are the three issues that Wahl said he considers the most important to Alabama voters.
Wahl said that the Alabama GOP wants to improve the Alabama education system through a combination of parental and teacher involvement in education, including the privatization of schools.
“I think we need to return parents and local teachers in control of our education system. I love school choice. I think it gives people who have not had the opportunity to have choice in education a choice, especially young, low-income families that could never have considered private education,” Wahl said.
Wahl shared that on Sunday and Monday, he was with presidential candidate Donald Trump both in New York City and then at a rally in Georgia. The Alabama GOP endorsed Trump in February and has continued to back his campaign.
Alabama’s GOP endorses Trump because it believes his term as president had better outcomes regarding the economy, immigration and international security in comparison to Joe Biden’s term.
“[Under Biden] we are less secure on our southern border. We have higher illegal immigration rates,” Wahl said.
Rates of illegal immigration rose during the Biden presidency, with 8 million encounters with people attempting to cross the border illegally happening during Biden’s term as opposed to 2.4 million during Trump’s term.
However, rates of immigrants who moved to America on the non-detained docket increased more during the Trump presidency than the Biden presidency. Analysis has found that immigrants commit crime much less frequently than native-born citizens, and that immigration is associated with an increase in social connections that are correlated with higher neighborhood security.
“It’s time to close the southern border and then work on immigration policy where people who deserve to be here can get here easier,” Wahl said.
Wahl said that the Alabama GOP supports Trump because of the Biden administration’s worse economy. The average economic growth rate is nearly identical between both presidencies.
Inflation rose dramatically during COVID and fell afterwards, but still remains higher than it did during the Trump presidency. Employment and average incomes have been higher under Biden’s presidency than under Trump’s, which can be partially attributed to recovering from job losses after COVID.
The Alabama GOP says that they deserve college student’s votes because Republicans want to put power back in the hands of the people and return Americans to the “driver’s seat” of their lives.
“Freedom is a powerful message, and I think that it’s on the ballot this November,” Wahl said.
