Andrew Sorrell campaigning for Secretary of State in Rainbow City

April 19, 2025 – RAINBOW CITY, AL – State Auditor Andrew Jones (R) addressed the Etowah County Republican Party at their monthly breakfast meeting at the Western Sizzlin. Jones discussed his career, his accomplishments as a legislator and auditor, as well as his 2026 campaign to be Alabama's Secretary of State.

"I decided to run for Secretary of State after my good friend, (Secretary of State), Wes Allen, told me he would not be running for re-election."

Sorrell said that he served with Allen in the House of Representatives where they were both among the most conservative members. Allen is running for Lieutenant Governor.

Sorrell said that Democrats have been poorly served by the agenda of their national party. When there were boys – dressing as girls – and going into the girls' restrooms.

"The Democrats said that was not happening in Alabama," Sorrell recalled. "I represented Muscle Shoals. We did have a boy in the girl's bathroom. I went to the floor and said it is happening in Alabama. It's happening in my high school."

Sorrell said that this never should have been an issue in Alabama. The State School Board should have just passed a rule barring it from ever happening in the state; but when he talked with them they said that they did not because they were concerned that the state would lose some federal funding if they stood up against the U.S. Department of Education. The state gets about 12 to 15 percent of it's funding for education from the federal government. The other 85 percent comes from state tax dollars and local taxes.

"Fine, I would rather lose 12% of our funding than having a boy in the bathroom with my daughter," stated Sorrell.

"I got my undergraduate in two years," by taking dual enrollment classes while in high school reminisced Sorrell. "By the time I was in college I was a sophomore."

While in high school Sorrell founded a textbooks company with his older brother.

"He wouldn't sell his textbook (to the campus bookstore) for 30 cents on the dollar, so he came up with the idea of buying his classmate's books for forty cents on the dollar," said Sorrell.

His brother did not have the money to carry out the plan so he asked Andrew – a high school student at the time – for help.

"I gave the $2,000 to my brother," said Sorrell.

They still own Infinity textbooks today.

"2004 - that was the best time to be buying and selling textbooks – before Amazon," said Sorrell. "We have $9 million in revenue and 26 employees when I was in my twenties."

Sorrell next invested in a pawnshop that he named Golds, Guns, and Guitars. Then he added a second store and purchased nine rental properties.

"I have put the Golds, Guns, & Guitars stores for sale and I sold one of my rental properties yesterday," said Sorrell to focus on his growing family and his political career.

He and his brother got involved in Lauderdale County Republican politics when Democrats dominated the county.

"All the campaigns we got involved in lost," said Sorrell. "My brother said Why don't we go to school to learn to run how to manage campaigns."

The two went to Arlington, Virginia and took a course on managing campaigns.

"We started flipping seats," from Democrat to Republican said Sorrell after the two began running campaign with the new information that they learned in the course. "All 26 seats (in Lauderdale County have now flipped."

In 2014 State Representative Marcel Black (D-Tuscumbia) was re-elected to his House District 3 seat with less than 60 percent of the vote.

"I said that seat is winnable," Sorrell said. "The problem is that nobody thought it was winnable including the Alabama Republican Party."

Sorrell tried to recruit a GOP candidate. He even tried to recruit his dad – unsuccessfully. Ultimately Sorrell decided to run himself in 2018.

In 2016 on a Church history tour of Europe he met a young woman, Hannah, whom he eventually married.

"Marcel Black dropped out of the race," rather than face Sorrell in 2018. "I had a primary opponent who was a community college president."

"Not even my mom thought I could win," said Sorrell. "We stayed (in the race) and knocked doors. I did the one thing he wouldn't do and that was ask people for their votes."

After he won the primary, then House Majority Leader Nathaniel Ledbetter (R-Rainsville) called and asked what he needed.

"I told him, I need a $100,000," said Sorrell. "You will have it," Sorrell said.

"I knocked 11,000 doors," said Sorrell. "My campaign staff and volunteers knocked on 12,000 doors."

Ultimately Sorrell narrowly won that race after knocking on 23,000 doors across the district.

Once elected, Sorrell said that he wanted to work on passing concealed carry during his first term in the House.

"The Speaker (then Mac McCutcheon (R-Monrovia) told me this bill will not pass," said McCutcheon. "Members of your own caucus do not support this bill. He was right. I had just seven cosponsors the first year."

The second year the bill got 23 cosponsors; however a member of leadership – then Representative Connie Rowe (R-Jasper) joined as a cosponsor. She found more cosponsors. Finally in the fourth year even Speaker McCutcheon signed on as a cosponsor.

"It was not my version of the bill," said Sorrell. "I had this conversation with the Speaker and he said that it would be more likely to pass if Shane Stringer carried it."

"I asked Shane two things: don't water down the bill and keep me involved in every stage of the process," Sorrell said. "He (Stringer) got fired for supporting constitutional carry. He was a Mobile County Sheriff's deputy. Some people who weren't for the bill supported it to send a message that: you don't fire a legislature because you don't like his policy."

The bill passed and in 2018 Sorrell ran statewide for State Auditor.

"I more than doubled the previous record for auditor," in campaign funds raised Sorrell explained. "I could have raised even more," if he had run for re-election to the House.

"I was recognized as the most conservative member of the legislature," said Sorrell. "That is actually pretty easy, if you vote against tax increases and you vote against increasing the size and scope of government. It is kind of weird down there (the Legislature): We cut taxes and raise taxes in the same year."

Sorrell said that he raised $327,000 in his campaign for auditor, "$300,000 was from individuals."

The state auditor, the governor, and the commissioner of agriculture and industries each appoint one of the three board of registrars members in every county, except Jefferson County.

"We had one registrar who was stocking up food and medical supplies in the registrars office for the coming Russian invasion so we had to make a change," said Sorrell. "If they don't know how to add an attachment to an email," then they aren't smart enough to use the mapping software to redistrict the voting rolls.

Governor Ivey and Commissioner Pate agreed with Sorrell's suggestion that the head registrar be, "The most qualified person instead of the governor's appointee."

The Auditor is also on the board that hears claims against the state of Alabama. Sorrell said that annually the state has about $30 million in claims and "We pay about $10 million."

"The Lord is leading me to run for this," (Secretary of State) Sorrell said. "Yes, everybody says that that and He may be; but He only wants one of them to win."

Sorrell said that he supported the ban on Zuckerbucks paying for election equipment and personnel.

"We don't need private money paying for our elections," said Sorrell.

Sorrell says that he also opposes curbside voting, extended voting, and voting by mail. He also supported Wes Allen's replacement of the ERIC System with the Alabama Voter Integrity Database. To this point nine other states are sharing data with Alabama.

"We are missing people," Sorrell said of people who should be removed from the rolls but, "They are still registered."

"Wes has removed one million people from our voter rolls," Sorrell continued. "We need to triple the number of partner states."

"If you want to purchase the voter list you buy it from the Secretary of State," Sorrell said. "The list costs $38,000. The Democrat states only charge about $2,000. We need to slash that 90%."

Sorrell said that he also favors implementing a system to "Audit our election."

"Heritage ranked our election and we are ranked number 2," in the country Sorrell said. "Tennessee is beating us in two categories: the cleanliness of the voting rolls is one issue."

Sorrell said that last year they had identified 3,251 probable illegals on our voting rolls. This is due to the 1993 federal motor voter law. One country registrar found her son-in-law (an Egyptian immigrant) wrongly on the roll. The only way she caught it was that it was her son in law. He did not intentionally put himself on the roll; but it likely happened when he registered his car tags,

The second reason Heritage ranked Tennessee ahead of Alabama is because, "We are the only state in America that doesn't audit our election."

Sorrell said that he does support the bill in the Alabama House to implement a partial audit.

"HB30 is not a strong enough bill," said Sorrell. "Missouri hand counts 5% of their ballots in both the primary and the general election."

Sorrell said that there should be audits for both in Alabama.

"The truth is that 90% of the elections are decided in the Republican or Democratic primaries not in general elections," explained Sorrell.

Sorrell said that if elected he would create, "A new division of election integrity" in the Secretary of State's office. "There are only two attorneys (in the Secretary of State's office). I think there needs to be four. (Former Secretary of State) John Merrill was sued 28 times. Now he won all 28 of them; but that is an awful lot of work for two attorneys."

"Georgia has watermarked ballots," is another change that Sorrell said he supports.

"The machines can't tell either," between an actual ballot and a photocopy of a ballot. "That scared the heck out of me."

The Republican primary is May 2026. At this time, Sorrell is the only announced candidate for Auditor.

The Etowah County Republican Breakfast occurs monthly at 8:00 a.m. at the Western Sizzlin in Rainbow City.