The head of the Limestone County Republican Party said Friday he was not referring to a gay candidate’s life partner but rather his business partner when he sent a message to committee members just before they voted to deny the candidate access to the GOP ballot.

In January, Republican Jason White had asked his party for permission to run on the GOP ticket in the Limestone County sheriff’s race.

The 40-year-old police sergeant and business owner had already run for sheriff on the GOP ticket in 2002, but was eliminated in the primary election. Back then, former Limestone County Republican Executive Committee Chairman Ronnie Coffman had allowed White to run on the GOP ticket.

This time, when White asked to run as a GOP candidate, his request was denied. The entire LCREC voted on his request, and about two-thirds of the 34 members voted Jan. 23 to deny him ballot access.

A day after the vote, White said he believed he was rejected as a candidate because of his sexual orientation. White, 40, is a former Athens police detective who is now a sergeant for the University of Alabama in Huntsville Police Department and co-owns a Huntsville security firm. He did not openly admit he was homosexual until 2003, about a year after the 2002 election. In 2014, White married the first openly gay Navy seal, Brett Jones, in Indiana. The couple live in Limestone County.

Two days after the vote, Noah Wahl, who succeeded Coffman as head of the LCREC, said White was rejected because he “is not a Republican.” As evidence, Wahl cited White’s admission that he voted for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson in the 2016 presidential election instead of Republican nominee Donald Trump, something Wahl said “is extremely serious.”

Wahl also said White does not attend or take part in any Republican events or organizations and there is no record of him ever donating to another GOP candidate.

White, who declined to comment for this story, has said he has been a Republican all of his life. As a small business owner, he has said he believes in small government and funding for law enforcement. He has said he has supported other candidates at events, including former sheriff’s candidate Eric Smith.

After the vote, Wahl denied White’s sexual orientation had anything to do with the decision. He accused the media of being “disingenuous” in suggesting so.

“The news media can try to make this about Mr. White’s sexual orientation, but that would be extremely dishonest to the people of Limestone County,” Wahl said in a statement released Jan. 25. “The challenge to Mr. White’s request for candidacy as a Republican was simple, was he a Republican? After careful deliberation the committee could not answer that question with a yes.”

He went on to say, “I am extremely disappointed that the news media has chosen to slander the Limestone County Republican Party with this allegation of discrimination.”

On Friday, The News Courier received a copy of a message sent to all members of the LCREC prior to the vote on White’s ballot access. It reads as follows:

Dear Committee,

Our guest speaker this month is Jason White. Mr. White is wanting to qualify to run for Limestone Sheriff on the Republican ticket. Our Candidate Committee has interviewed him and has decided that his candidacy should be decided by the entire Committee. I would encourage you to do some research so that you have the information you need to make your vote. You can google his name. There are a lot of Jason Whites. To help narrow the results you can google his name along with his partner’s name, Brett Jones. You can also find his Facebook page by searching Jason White Sheriff.

The rest of the message deals with committee membership and dues but is unrelated to White’s candidacy. The message is signed, “In your service, Noah Wahl.” A notation at the bottom of the page says the message was sent to the entire LCREC membership.

Wahl responds

When asked about the intent of the message Friday, Wahl said when he referred to White’s “partner” he simply meant “his business partner.”

White and Jones co-own Riley Security business in Huntsville.

“If I was to take issue with that (White’s sexual orientation) or attack on a particular issue, I could have done that.” Wahl said. “The only reason I put the name Jones in there was so people could tell which Jason White it was — by his business partner.”

Wahl went on to say, “I do not believe in telling them (committee members) how to vote but I want to give them enough information so they can exercise due diligence.”

He said he believed the sharing of the message with The News Courier amounted to someone from the Republican committee “just trying to stir up trouble.”

State party

Terry Lathan, chairwoman of the Alabama Republican Party, said at the time White was denied ballot access that a person’s sexual orientation would have “no bearing” on them being allowed on the GOP ticket. However, she had not seen the message Wahl sent to all of the committee members, she said Friday afternoon.

Before commenting on the issue, she requested a copy of the message, which was provided. She had not yet responded at press time Friday.

White could have appealed the LCREC’s decision to the state party but did not know about Wahl’s message at the time. Lathan has said the state committee has not reversed a local decision since the start of her tenure as chairman in 2015.

White said Lathan told him after the vote that it was just his opinion that his orientation was the reason the local executive committee voted to deny him ballot access.

Coffman has said denying White access to the GOP ballot was a mistake.

While White still considers himself a Republican, he is trying to gather signatures to run for sheriff as an independent candidate. Meanwhile, Republican Eric Redd, who also previously ran for sheriff, qualified the last day of the qualifying period to run for sheriff on the GOP ticket.