Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Chris McCool will run for a seat on the state Supreme Court next year, the judge announced.

McCool, a Republican from Gordo, will seek an open seat on the nine-member Supreme Court. The primary is in March 2024.

“My nearly three decades of legal experience as a lawyer, prosecutor and judge have reinforced my great reverence for the Rule of Law,” McCool said in a press release. “My more than half a century of life experience has taught me that there is no substitute for integrity. ‘Character’ is not something you can teach in school – I learned that growing up on my daddy’s cattle and chicken farm, and in working hard to provide for my family through the years.”

Voters elected McCool to a six-year term on the Court of Criminal Appeals in 2018. Before that, he was district attorney for the 24th Judicial Circuit from 2001 to 2018. The 24th circuit includes Pickens, Fayette, and Lamar counties. McCool was a prosecutor for almost 24 years.

McCool is running for the seat now held by Associate Justice Sarah Stewart, who announced last week that she is running for chief justice at the conclusion of her six-year term.

McCool said he is a conservative who does not believe in “judicial activism.”

“Judges should apply the law, and not create the law,” he said.

McCool earned a bachelor’s degree and law degree from the University of Alabama. He and his wife Sherri live in Gordo, where they have raised four children. McCool has been the pastor of Zion Primitive Baptist Church since 2012.