Pastor Dean Odle addressed the Mid-Alabama Republican Club (MARC) in Vestavia on Saturday in his campaign for governor. He spoke on a variety of issues but emphasized his concerns of government overreach.
Odle promised that if he is elected governor, “we can make Alabama a true example of freedom.”
Odle decided to run for governor after watching how the COVID-19 pandemic was handled in Alabama by current Gov. Kay Ivey.
“We are close to 20,000 people dead in Alabama,” Odle said. “Dr Peter McCollough testified before the Texas Legislature that we could have saved 85% of the people that died. Our Governor said nothing. I am angry that our leaders, through ignorance or politics, allowed 20,000 of our citizens (to die).”
Odle cited examples of “ignorance” as the closing down of businesses, the mask requirements, and Ivey’s silence about the benefits of hydroxychloroquine and other alternative treatments for COVID-19. Meanwhile, Odle was outspoken on his controversial views on alternative treatments, but his YouTube channel and other social media platforms were taken down due to “big tech censorship”.
Odle said that he contracted COVID-19 in August 2020.
“I took the ivermectin protocols, or I would not be here today,” Odle said. “I do not trust the mainstream media and now even Fox News has gone over the rails.”
He continued, “I told everybody early on that the vaccine is going to be dangerous. Because it was not properly tested. The Alabama press called me a conspiracy theorist.”
Odle blamed the death of his sister on the COVID-19 vaccine.
“She was a healthy 46-year-old,” Odle said. “She did not listen to her big brother and took the vaccine, and two weeks later she had a massive stroke and died.”
As another example of his disappointment in the handling of the pandemic, Odle referenced Ivey’s 2020 order that Alabama churches be closed.
“We refused to do it, because I was not going to give up my First Amendment rights,” Odle continued. “I do not trust the NIH, the CDC or the FDA.”
“[Ivey] is not really a true conservative,” Odle said. “What she is, is a Democrat in Republican clothing.”
Odle said that he is not a career politician and dismissed some of the other GOP candidates as “wealthy people who think they have the right to rule over us. That’s absurd.”
Additionally, Odle pledged that as governor he would work on “stopping federal executive overreach and even state overreach,” claiming Alabama needs a governor who will be “Ron DeSantis on steroids.”
Odle said that fuel has risen to over $4 a gallon, and while he supports repealing the gas tax, “if we got rid of it tomorrow, it is not going to make a dent.”
He promised to remove regulations limiting oil and natural gas exploration in Alabama.
“I will nullify those federal regulations that are unconstitutional,” Odle said. “We can become energy independent and also become wealthy.”
He briefly addressed current food shortages.
“Right now, we are facing food shortages,” Odle warned. “It is man-made. There is an agenda to weaken the United States and bring us under control of the United Nations. [The Biden] administration has signed an agreement with the [World Health Organization] to give total control over our sovereignty to deal with a pandemic. They have been working on this for a long time.”
Odle also referenced his “plan for real school choice.”
Odle is a Lee County Pastor, former missionary, ministry school leader, and the author of four books.
Lindy Blanchard, Lew Burdette, Stacy George, Ivey, Tim James, Donald Trent Jones, Odle, Dave Thomas, and Dean Young are all running for the Republican nomination for governor.
Yolanda Rochelle Flowers, Patricia Salter Jamieson, Arthur Kennedy, Chad “Chig” Martin, Malika Sanders Fortier and Doug “New Blue” Smith are running for the nomination in the Democratic primary.
Both primaries are on May 24.
The winners of each primary will face each other in the general election on Nov. 8.
To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandon.moseley@1819News.com.
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