Alabama Senate Republicans elect Garlan Gudger as new Senate leader – WLTZ

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Republicans in the Alabama Senate on Tuesday elected Sen. Garlan Gudger of Cullman pro tempore to be the next Senate president.

Republicans named Gudger their nominee after a closed-door meeting. The full Senate will elect the new pro tempore when lawmakers convene the 2025 legislative session in February. The Republicans have a lopsided majority with 27 seats in the 35-member Senate and have the numbers needed to install their nominee.

The influential position is vacant because Senate Pro Tempore Greg Reed is resigning to join Gov. Kay Ivey’s administration. Senate Majority Leader Steve Livingston of Scottsboro also filed for the position.

“I appreciate the trust placed in me by my fellow Republican senators and will ensure everyone has a voice in the operation of the Senate,” Gudger said in a prepared statement. “If we bring everyone together, put teamwork first and unite behind the conservative beliefs, traditional values ​​and core morals that each of us share, we can make an already great state even greater.”

Gudger was elected to the Senate in 2018 and re-elected in 2022. He previously served on the Cullman City Council for 14 years.

In the last legislative session, Gudger supported Alabama’s new law limiting assistance with absentee ballot applications. Republicans said the restrictions would combat voter fraud through “ballot harvesting,” a term for collecting multiple mail-in ballots. Opponents called it an attempt to suppress mail-in voting.

Gudger also served on a conference committee that tried to negotiate a compromise on lottery and casino legislation last year and end a 25-year stalemate on the gambling issue. The bill failed because supporters failed to break the stalemate in the Alabama Senate.

Gudger will be the third Republican leader of the state Senate since Republicans won the legislative majority in 2010.

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