By Brandon Moseley
State Auditor candidate Pastor Stan Cooke (R) campaigned Tuesday at the Shelby County Republican Party Executive Committee meeting. The meeting was at New Hope Presbyterian Church, near Indian Springs.
Cooke thanked everyone for their prayers during his battle with COVID-19.
“I almost died on August 5,” Cooke said. “I am still recovering. I lost 40 pounds. I lost half my hair. I had to learn how to walk again.”
The self-proclaimed "Constitutional Conservative Christian and a life-long Republican" said he has no interest in the political elite and power brokers. He said he wants to fight corruption.
“When I am elected State Auditor of Alabama I will protect the Taxpayer from the spending spree politicians and Bureaucratic Pirates,” Cooke said. “I am not a recycled politician that needs a job, nor a political zealot with selfish ambition.”
Cooke has over 35 years of experience in ministry. During 19 years of that time, he also worked in the private sector. He is the Pastor of the Church of God in Kimberly.
He is the founder and president of an international Christian mission organization, Abraham’s Promise, that directs and supports benevolence programs in Israel, a Christian School in Israel, and educational and humanitarian programs in the Palestinian Territories, Jordan, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago and Ecuador. Cooke said he has been involved in the promotion of democracy, capitalistic economies, human rights and freedom of religion efforts for over 35 years.
Cooke has six degrees in various areas of study including theology, physical science, Biblical studies, pastoral ministry, Christian education, family counseling, comparative religion, education leadership and technology, and higher education administration from Lee University, The Jewish-Christian Institute and the University of Alabama at Birmingham-the University of Alabama dual degree program. He also has a doctoral degree.
Cooke served as a youth director and Christian education director while working full-time as a warehouse manager for Fisher Scientific, Medical Laboratory Associates, the Buyer/Inventory Control Manager for Immediate Business Systems and as an Instructor at Virginia College. Cooke also has served as a consultant with the International Offices of the Church of God in Cleveland, Tennessee.
Cooke wants to have the State Auditor’s auditing powers restored. State Auditor is a constitutional office created in the 1901 Constitution; however over 80 years ago the legislature usurped the auditing powers of the State Auditor and put them under the unelected Examiner of Public Accounts. Since then the Auditor, whose office has been dramatically cut over the last seven years, has been tasked with doing property inventories.
Cooke wants to see the legislature restore the examiners to the Auditor.
Current State Auditor Jim Zeigler (R) is term-limited from running for another term.
Cooke faces a crowded Republican primary field that includes: Florence attorney Brent Woodall, former State Sen. Rusty Glover, and State Rep. Andrew Sorrell.
The Republican primary is May 24, 2022.
