John Wahl, a butterfly farmer from Athens, was reelected Saturday as chair of the Alabama Republican Party after serving a two-year term.

The State Republican Executive Committee unanimously voted to reelect Wahl as committee chairman at its winter meeting in Birmingham.

Wahl, a butterfly farmer from Athens, has been active in the party for nearly 12 years. He was voted in as GOP chairman in 2021 after Terry Lathan, who led the party since 2015, announced that she would not seek reelection.

Wahl was also recently named vice chair of the Republican National Committee during the RNC’s winter meeting in January.

Both elections come amid recent controversy over Wahl’s voting record. The chairman, according to an AL.com report in October, was found to have voted several times with an ID that Wahl made himself. Secretary of State John Merrill said the document was not a valid state ID, but Wahl claimed he made the document with permission from Jim Zeigler when he was state auditor.

Speaking to the committee Saturday, Wahl outlined a GOP platform based on taking back the 2024 election and strengthening recent efforts to protect children from so-called indoctrination in the classroom and to place more Republican parents in school leadership positions.

He hailed Alabama as the “number one state in the country for protecting our children from woke policies” from the federal Department of Education, citing a number of bills introduced last session to limit discussions of gender identity and sexuality in the classroom.

He also praised the committee for hosting the what he said was the largest GOP meeting in the country during his term, when it held a Trump rally in Cullman, and for building a strong base of Alabama volunteers, who have knocked on about 85,000 doors in swing states ahead of the upcoming general election.

“Don’t be afraid to be a bold conservative,” he told the crowd. “Don’t be afraid to challenge Biden’s woke policies. Don’t be afraid to be politically incorrect.”

Wahl ran unopposed for chairman. Finance chairwoman Joan Reynolds defeated Pat Ellis and Rick Phillips for the vice chair position, and the committee reelected Sallie Bryant as treasurer.

The committee also elected the following regional representatives:

• Bill Harris for Districts 1 and 2
• Renee Powers for Districts 3, 6 and 7
• Josh Dodd for Districts 4 and 5