State Reps. Matt Simpson (R-Daphne) and Phillip Pettus (R-Killen) hit Alabama Values PAC with formal cease-and-desist demands this week, calling its mailers “outright false, deliberately misleading, defamatory, and libelous.”

The twin letters, dated May 12 reviewed by Yellowhammer News, were drafted by Opelika attorney Algert S. Agricola Jr. and arrived in the PAC’s email inbox one week before the May 19 Republican primary.

Pettus’s letter goes for the throat.

Addressed to Wisconsin operative Thomas Datwyler, the PAC’s listed chairperson and treasurer, at the UPS Store mailbox in Montgomery and by email that serves as the group’s address, the letter walks through three specific bills the PAC mischaracterized in its “Phillip Pettus’ Priorities” and “Phillip Pettus A Record of Failure” mailers, as well as on a companion microsite, phillippettusvotingrecord.com.

On HB210 — the bill at the center of the “free college for illegals” charge Agricola is uncompromising: “This is a baldfaced lie.” The letter cites the bill’s plain text barring undocumented students from “any postsecondary education benefit, including, but not limited to, scholarships, grants, or financial aid,” notes Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter has publicly condemned the same claim, and observes that the bill “never became law and never authorized a single dime of taxpayer money for illegal immigrants.”

On HB227, which the PAC framed as “Legalized Gifts to Politicians from Lobbyists,” the letter says the bill in fact “strengthened ethics laws by criminalizing the use of public office for personal financial gain, enhancing bribery penalties, increasing transparency, and requiring audits.” Agricola calls the PAC’s framing “a grotesque inversion of the bill’s actual purpose.”

On HB16, framed as “Early Parole for Violent Felons,” the letter says the bill addressed court discretion on cash bond — not parole — and notes Pettus, a career law enforcement officer, voted for and supported Aniah’s Law in 2022.

“These statements are not matters of opinion,” Agricola wrote. “They are verifiable lies that your PAC has chosen to broadcast to thousands of Alabama voters in a deliberate and malicious attempt to deceive the electorate and damage Rep. Pettus’ reputation.”

Because the PAC has continued running the claims after they were “publicly repudiated by the Speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives, among numerous others,” the letter argues, its conduct now constitutes “actual malice and meets every element of defamation under Alabama law.”

The demand is sweeping. Pettus’s letter requires the PAC to cease and desist immediately, scrub the materials from its website and social media within 24 hours, issue a public retraction “in the same manner and to the same audience as the original false mailers” — approved in advance by Pettus’s counsel — and provide written confirmation of compliance within five business days.

Failure to comply, the letter warns, will trigger civil litigation for compensatory and punitive damages, injunctive relief, and attorney’s fees, along with referrals to the Alabama Secretary of State, the Alabama Ethics Commission, and the Alabama Attorney General’s Office “for investigation of potential violations of election and campaign finance laws prohibiting false statements intended to influence elections.”

Copies went to all three regulators.

“This is not a request,” the letter closes. “It is a formal legal demand. You have been warned. We expect your full and immediate compliance.”

Simpson’s letter, sent the same day to the same address and directed to a “Robyn Riga” listed as a contact, identifies the four false claims that have been hitting mailboxes in House District 96: “Free College for Illegals,” “Legalizing Bribes for Elected Officials,” “Early Parole for Violent Felons,” and “Higher Taxes on Firearms.”

“None of these accusations is correct,” Agricola wrote. “Matt Simpson is a prosecutor who works with the Mobile County District Attorney’s Office to send criminals to jail. Matt Simpson is a proven conservative member of the Alabama House of Representatives whose legislative votes reflect his conservative values.”

The letter demands Simpson’s accusers immediately cease and desist, publicly retract, and notify every household that received the false mailers — and warns that continued dissemination after being put on notice will support a finding of “actual malice in disregard of the truth” in court.

The retreat came one day after Alabama Legislative Services Agency Director Othni Lathram confirmed in writing to Pettus that HB210 addressed enrollment eligibility only and carried no taxpayer funding for the students in question. The bill passed the House in 2024 with the support of 63 of 75 Republicans and never became law.

Alabama Values PAC was registered with the Alabama Secretary of State on March 12, 2026, weeks before the mailers began landing in voter mailboxes.

Campaign filings show the Alabama Values PAC received roughly $134,000 in April from Freedom Forward Alliance, a Virginia-registered entity with no publicly identifiable leadership.

Simpson faces Danielle Duggar in House District 96. Pettus faces a primary challenger in House District 1. The Republican primary is May 19.

Sawyer Knowles is a capitol reporter for Yellowhammer News. You may contact him at [email protected].