Lee County Pastor Dean Odle qualified to run for Governor at Alabama Republican Party Headquarters in Hoover on Wednesday.
“We have officially qualified at the Alabama Republican Headquarters to run for Governor in the 2022 Republican Primary which is May 24th,” Odle said in a statement on social media.
Odle is challenging incumbent Gov. Kay Ivey in the Republican Primary.
Odle is a staunch critic of the COVID-19 vaccine and thinks that the governor should have done more to prevent employers and the Biden administration from mandating that Americans take the vaccine, of which he has been highly skeptical. Odle believes that the government is not being truthful about COVID-19 and its treatment and that is leading to excessive deaths while forced economic shutdowns have harmed small businesses.
Odle recently urged his supporters to read Robert Kennedy’s new book, ‘The Real Anthony Fauci.”
“Everyone should read this book. RFK does an amazing job documenting the lies and big pharma control of Anthony Fauci,” Odle said in a statement. “He also shows the data that lockdowns and mask mandates DID NOT WORK. The deaths and losses from the lockdowns and the suppression of early treatment protocols were far worse than the virus. Fauci is the self-serving little Josef Mengele of our time. He is a lying, big pharma prostitute that Kay Ivey followed without question.”
Odle has been a Christian missionary to Africa as well as other places, including Washington D.C., before settling in Lee County where he is a Pastor and school headmaster.
Odle holds to a number of ideas that have been discredited by science, including the Flat Earth Theory. Odle has been called a conspiracy theorist by many of his critics.
"The conspiracy theorists are the real investigative journalists of our time,” Odle said.
Odle has been very critical of Ivey and has suggested that the state needs a stronger leader. He has also criticized the state’s public school system and supports switching to a voucher system where the money follows the child, rather than for the state to continue propping up a public school system that is 52nd in math and 46th in reading in recent national rankings (national school rankings include the 50 states, the Defense Department schools and Washington D.C.)
Odle has had difficulty raising large amounts of money to this point, but his campaign has been very active.
“Next week on January 13th I will be at the Hold the Line Rally in Montgomery and then drive to speak to the Monroe County Republicans in Monroeville that evening,” Odle said. “On January 15th, I will be speaking to the Shelby County Republican Women. Then, I will participate in the gubernatorial candidate forum put on by the Coffee County Republican Women in Enterprise on January 19th. I will also be speaking to the Escambia County Republicans on January 24th.”
There is a very crowded Republican primary field for Governor.
Lew Burdette – the President of the King’s Home
Former Ambassador to Slovenia Lindy Blanchard
Greenville businessman Tim James
Springville Mayor and former State Rep. Dave Thomas
Former Morgan County Commissioner Stacey George
State Auditor Jim Ziegler – who is campaigning but not committed to entering the race yet
Pastor Dean Odle
Incumbent Gov. Kay Ivey
The winner of the Republican Primary will have to face the winner of the Democratic Party Primary in the November election. Candidates who have expressed interest in running for the office:
Birmingham activist Yolanda Rochelle Flowers
Hemp entrepreneur Chad “Chig” Martin
LGBTQ activist Chris Countryman
Major party qualifying does not end until Jan. 28 so there is still more time for more candidates to get into this race.
The major party primaries are on May 24.
To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandon.moseley@1819News.com.
