Two months have passed since Secretary of State John Merrill ruled out a run in 2022 for any office after revelations and subsequent admission of an extramarital affair. However, in recent days Merrill seems to be slowly getting back to his old routine, making media appearances and speaking to groups around the state.
Recently, Merrill appeared on Alexander City television’s WAXC’s “The Front Porch” and spoke at the Cullman County Republican Party’s monthly Republican Breakfast event.
Could Merrill be staging a comeback? During the Cullman event last Saturday, Merrill addressed the recent controversy.
“I want to tell you this before you go,” he said. “I want to thank you for your prayers about what we’ve been going through. I want to thank you for your concern. I want to make sure you understand some things — number one is this — I’ve been a Christian since I was six years old. But for the last several years of my life, I have not lived my faith the way the Lord has required me to do so. And what I want you to know is since we’ve gone through these things, I’ve repented my sins that were well reported in the paper. I’ve rededicated my life. I went to a rehab that was out of our state for a month, really almost five weeks, and made sure I’ve refocused on the things I need to be focused on and the things I needed to do in order to make sure I’m being the husband, the father, the friend, the elected official that I need and expected to be. And I want you to know — people are asking me, ‘How’s it going?’ And a lot of time, people will say, ‘Well, I’m taking it one day at a time,’ because that’s what we say. That’s not true for me. What’s true for me is I’m taking it every 15 minutes at a time because that’s a manageable increment for me where I know I can do what I need to do.”
“Some people have asked me, ‘Do you think this is a political hit job?’” he said. “I do. It’s pretty evident because after a week of it, and I was out of the Senate race, you haven’t seen or heard anything else about it. But don’t miss the bigger point. The bigger point is I made some choices that were poor. I made some mistakes that were introduced to everybody in the state and the nation who wanted to know about it. And, whether or not I was set up or not is not important. I’m the one that made the choice. I’m the one that stumbled. I’m the one that made the mistake. I’m the one that has to pay for it. And so, I’m going to continue to do what I can to be the Christian I’ve been called to be and to be the leader the Lord has allowed me to be. And I want you to know how much it means to me to have y’alls support.”
Merrill will make another appearance on Monday in Muscle Shoals before the Republican Women of the Shoals.
@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Alabama, the editor of Breitbart TV, a columnist for Mobile’s Lagniappe Weekly, and host of Mobile’s “The Jeff Poor Show” from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. on FM Talk 106.5.
