Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) faces a major obstacle in his nascent campaign to run for governor: there is evidence he has secretly lived in Florida for years rather than Alabama, which would pose a problem as Alabama's residency requirements for governor are stricter than for senator.
One of the key figures who will resolve this dispute is Alabama Republican Party chair John Wahl — but it turns out there are some bizarre discrepancies in his own residency status, Kyle Whitmire wrote in an analysis for AL.com.
Wahl, for his part, insists he is and has long been an Alabama resident — but he appears to use a driver's license from Tennessee under a different name.
"A 2023 traffic ticket, obtained by AL.com, shows that John Wahl gave an Alabama State Trooper a Tennessee driver’s license with the name Nehemiah Ezekiel Wahl," wrote Whitmire. "Tennessee voter records also show that Nehemiah Wahl registered to vote there in December 2020, the same year John Wahl successfully ran to represent Alabama as an elector in the Electoral College."
When Whitmire initially inquired about this to Wahl, he initially denied ever going by Nehemiah, saying "you have some bad information" — but then he changed his story after Whitmire confronted him with the traffic citation and voter registration.
“My first name is Nehemiah, and that’s not something I have ever tried to hide,” said Wahl. “Many people, especially public figures, don’t use their first names or choose to go by nicknames. I have gone by John since my childhood, and that’s how everyone knows me.”
He also said that he had been planning to move to Tennessee in 2020, hence the ID and registration there, but never went through with it and remained in Alabama — but didn't offer an explanation as to why he goes by John in Alabama records and Nehemiah in Tennessee records.
Moreover, official forms in Alabama until 2022 had separate lines to list your official name and your nickname, and Wahl never specified that "John" was a nickname.
Wahl has actually had issues with his ID in the past. In 2022, he admitted to using a fake ID to vote. In 2016 his brother, speaking in a deposition, explained that their family believed government-issued biometric identification, which has been included in Alabama driver's licenses as part of the REAL ID Act, was the Mark of the Beast described in the Revelation prophecy. Tennessee offers photoless driver's licenses to people with religious objections, although Wahl says his Tennessee license does have his photo.
"It’s Wahl’s job to vet Republican candidates, to make certain they are who they say they are and that they live where they say they live," concluded Whitmire. "But how can we trust a man with a Tennessee license to decide who lives in Alabama?"