John Merrill enters GOP race for U.S. Senate seat

Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill formally opened his campaign for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate on Tuesday, presenting himself — as other Republicans have — as an authentic conservative who could defeat Democratic incumbent Doug Jones. 

Merrill, 55, spoke before a crowd of about 100 supporters on the south lawn of the Alabama State Capitol, staking out mostly mainstream Alabama Republican positions on immigration and trade while calling himself a “conservative reformer."

“All too often in the past, we have continued to nominate Republicans who are not proven conservatives, who are put in positions where they’re not willing to stand up and not do what’s necessary to take a stand and hold their ground and with that foundational assignment, lead us forward to do what we need to do,” Merrill said. 

Merrill, who oversees elections in the state of Alabama, joins a field that includes U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne of Mobile; Rep. Arnold Mooney of Indian Springs; former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore and former Auburn head football coach Tommy Tuberville. Merrill said Tuesday he would continue to serve as Secretary of State during the election process, saying his office’s role was to “confirm, receive and certify the results of the elections that take place on the local level."

“Anybody that wants to make it more than that is trying to do it for political purposes,” he said, adding that Doug Jones “is the poster child for free and fair elections in the state of Alabama. If it were not for free and fair elections in the state of Alabama, Doug Jones would not have been in the United States Senate.”

Byrne’s campaign said in a statement that their candidate was “fighting alongside President Trump to build the wall, protect the unborn and cut taxes.”

“Bradley Byrne is in this race to win in March and defeat Doug Jones next November,” the statement said. “Nothing anybody does else will change that.”

Jones, who last week suggested any Republican not named Roy Moore would need Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's help to win, said in a statement that Merrill was "relying on talking points designed to curry favor with Sen. McConnell."

"I think my record representing the people of Alabama speaks for itself: working to save access to health care in our rural communities, to preserve health care for those with pre-existing conditions, supporting a strong military through my work on the Senate Armed Services Committee and bringing good-paying jobs to Alabama," the statement said.

Merrill said he had met with McConnell in February. 

“Sen. McConnell and Sen. Shelby want a proven Republican winner who will win this seat back and give it to the people of Alabama,” he said. “That’s who they want as the nominee.”

Messages seeking comment were sent to other Republican campaigns on Tuesday.

A resident of Tuscaloosa, Merrill worked as a spokesman for the local board of education and a development officer at a local bank. He won election as Secretary of State in 2014 after serving a single term in the Alabama House of Representatives. Merrill was re-elected last November, getting 61% of the vote. Moore and Merrill are currently the only two candidates in the Republican field who have won a statewide race. 

Merrill has touted the increase in voter registration during his time in office, which has coincided with laws requiring individuals to represent photo IDs before voting. The total number of registered voters has increased in Alabama from 2.9 million in November 2014 to 3.4 million last month, a net increase of over 494,000, or 17%. Merrill says his office has worked to ensure those who need photo IDs have access to them and has cited recent high turnout in state elections. Forty-one percent of eligible voters cast ballots in the special election for U.S. Senate in December 2017. Almost 50% of registered voters cast ballots in last November’s elections, the highest rate since 2010. 

“We’ve made a concerted effort to ensure each and every eligible US citizen will be registered to vote and have a photo ID,” Merrill said at the campaign kickoff. At the same time, Merrill also touted the removal of 780,000 people from the rolls who he said had “moved away, passed away or been put away (in prison).”

Merrill has drawn criticism for some attitudes toward voter registration. In 2016, he expressed opposition to automatic voter registration, suggesting it was insulting to civil rights leaders like U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma on March 7, 1965, an event known as Bloody Sunday.

“I’m not going to cheapen the work that they did,” he said. “I’m not going to embarrass them by allowing somebody that’s too sorry to get up off of their rear end to go register to vote — or now, because of what we’ve done, turn the computer on and register to vote — because they think they deserve the right because they’ve turned 18.” Lewis has sponsored a bill that would, in part, require states to create a system of automatic voter registration. 

Merrill has given out his cellphone number and been an active presence on social media, particularly Twitter. Three people sued Merrill last year for blocking them on the social media platform after a federal judge ruled President Donald Trump’s practice of blocking Twitter users violated First Amendment guarantees of free speech. The plaintiffs claimed they were blocked for various reasons and said the moves amounted to an “unconstitutional restriction on their participation in a designated public forum.” Merrill said the individuals had other ways to contact him and that he blocked people he found abusive, who use profanity or who appear to speak in bad faith. 

More:Twitter moment: Alabama Secretary of State sued over blocking users

At his announcement on Tuesday, Merrill said he would back conservative judges nominated by Trump and the support the president’s efforts to build a border wall with Mexico, though he said he wanted “anybody that wants to come to the United States or Alabama to come, but we want them to come the right way,” similar to a line Trump used in his State of the Union address earlier this year. He suggested an openness to addressing wait times for visas, some of which run into the decades, though he made no commitments. 

“Until we decide that Democrats are going to quit using the immigration conversation like a cash cow, and until Republicans stop using immigration conversation as a cash cow to raise money for campaigns, we’re not going to get anything done,” he said.

On other issues, and like similar campaign launches this year, Merrill’s announcement painted very broad themes without getting into specifics. He denounced what he called a “socialist overhaul” by congressional Democrats, though he did not cite examples. On trade, where Trump’s moves to renegotiate trade pacts with Canada and Mexico have drawn some concern from the state’s automotive industry, which relies on parts from Mexico, Merrill said he would rely on Sen. Richard Shelby for guidance but said he would “put Alabama first.”

“We want to make sure we are holding harmless the business and people of Alabama when we have the opportunity to make sure we are doing everything we can in support of the president,” he said.

The Secretary of State also said “we have to give attention” to the number of rural hospitals closing in Alabama, and expressed a willingness to work with Democrats and Republicans on solutions, though he did not say what he might support or oppose. Merrill said Medicaid expansion, which state hospitals have said would help them keep their doors open, was a “local issue” and that he would back Gov. Kay Ivey in any decisions she made on that front.

“When she feels like it’s time to change the state’s position on that issue, I’ll be happy to support her,” he said.

Merrill also sounded dismissive of efforts to address climate change, saying the state needed to give “proper attention to the things we can give attention to” while adding he did not want to put state businesses at a “competitive disadvantage” with other countries. 

“Climate change and weather changes and atmospheric changes have been happening since the Lord created this world,” he said. “Those are going to continue to take place until the Lord decides to come back.”

Updated at 4:29 p.m. to add comment from Sen. Doug Jones.