On the fifth episode of the “Grand Old Podcast,” hosted by ALGOP Chairman Scott Stadthagen, the script is flipped and the guests ask the host some questions.
Guests from previous shows — including U.S. Sen. Katie Britt (R-Montgomery), former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, former U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, and the hosts of “The Rightside” — had an opportunity to learn more about the new Alabama Republican chairman.
Britt asked him first about his upbringing and how that helps him as the leader of the party today.
“My football coach was like my father, okay? And I would take the way he carries himself and the way he handles life. I would pick godly men every time from my church um and so forth,” Stadthagen explained. “So I had I didn’t have a father, but I also had father figures in my life the whole time that the Lord’s provided me with. And I didn’t realize that until I got older.”
Sessions asked Stadthagen what excites him about his new role with the Republican Party.
“I think the biggest thing that I’m excited about most is bridging that gap from the legislature to the party,” Stadthagen said. “And that’s what I ran on as chairman is I can bring that to the party in the legislature because we’re all on one team. We’re all Republicans. We’re all conservative….I passed the China bill to prevent them from purchasing property in our state and the party did resolutions encouraging and supporting me and my legislation. What if we take those resolutions and we turn them into legislation? That gives the party a voice like never before in the state of Alabama. And that’s what we’re going to do. We’re gonna we’re going to combine a package of resolutions, turn those into legislation, and I’m going to propose those to the governor of our state and the Pro Tem. And we’re going to pass them. And then when the governor signs those bills, we’re going to have a huge celebration in Montgomery.”
Shelby asked the chairman about recruiting and retaining people in the party.
“It is a small world, but we’re going to reach out to every high school campus, every college campus. Um, get them involved,” Stadthagen answered. “They’re the future 100%. But let them know how important, you know, being a Republican is for the future of their family in how important it is to keep capitalism going. The law of opportunity, opportunities to build their families, to prosper, to strengthen the country.”
Allison Sinclair and Amie Beth Shaver asked him about the direction he plans to take the ALGOP for the future.
“Ultimately with the party as chairman, I’m not settling for anything else except for being the best state party in the United States. That’s it,” he said. “Like, we’re not stopping. Now, I say all the time, we’re going to be better tomorrow than we are today. And today, we didn’t do enough. That’s a good word. So maybe one day when I’m 70, I can sit on the front porch and say, ‘I’ve done enough.’ I probably won’t though. We’ll do another podcast with you at 70. See how it all turned out.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on X @Yaffee
