alabama's republican chair says two trans women on the ballot have "mental disorders." one of them has paperwork saying she's of sound mind. does he?

via AL.com and 1819 News, with reporting from the Alabama Reflector, WEAR and the Alabama Political Reporter

"I have letters from mental health professionals stating that I am of sound mind," Terri Osborne told AL.com. "Does he?"

He is Scott Stadthagen, chair of the Alabama Republican Party, and on Thursday he stood in front of the Eastern Shore Republican Women in Fairhope and diagnosed two people he has, by one of their accounts, never met. "We've got two men who have mental disorders who like to dress like women, who think they are females on the ballot this general election," he said, per AL.com. "One's in Madison County, one's in Baldwin County. That is a mental disorder, ladies and gentlemen." 1819 News, which was in the room, has the same line.

The two women are Democratic nominees for the Alabama House on Nov. 3: Osborne in House District 96 in Baldwin County, and Allison Montgomery, who is challenging Republican Rep. Phillip Rigsby in House District 25 around Huntsville.

what the chair said about drag

Stadthagen also explained his position on drag, which turns out to be a football position. "If a man wants to dress like a woman in the privacy of his home, Roll Tide. War Eagle. Whatever you want to do, go knock yourself out, alright," he said, per AL.com. "But when you want to do it in front of a kid and minors in a sexual, explicit manner, I've got a problem with that." Nobody at the event, in either account, suggested Osborne or Montgomery had done any such thing. They are running for the state House.

Osborne's Republican opponent, Danielle Duggar, spoke at the same event, referred to Osborne with male pronouns, and warned against letting "this type of radical communist ideology get a foothold here in Baldwin County," according to AL.com. She cited Tommy Tuberville, who said the night before that "we've already lost like 20 states to this woke, communist, Marxist stuff." (We have covered Tuberville's views on mental institutions before.)

how the candidates answered

"My existence is not a sexual performance, and my womanhood is not a threat to anybody's children or any of his business," Osborne said. She described herself as "a longtime Baldwin County resident, a geologist, a parent, a woman," and asked Duggar to tell voters "what you're actually doing to make their lives better."

Montgomery was shorter. "I don't know Stadthagen and he doesn't know me," she said. "This is just plain prejudice." And then the best line anyone said all week: "Ask yourselves: if I hadn't transitioned, would gas be cheaper?"

the arrest they want to talk about

Both candidates, AL.com reported, pointed to Rep. Brett Easterbrook, a Republican from Fruitdale, who was arrested this month in an undercover prostitution sting in Escambia County, the Alabama Reflector and WEAR reported. He was booked on first-degree human trafficking and a misdemeanor prostitution charge. Court documents allege he agreed to pay $500 for sex with an escort he believed to be 18, which counts as a minor under Alabama's human trafficking law, according to AL.com; the Alabama Political Reporter reported the same filing. On Oct. 5 prosecutors reduced the top charge to attempted human trafficking, because a sting has no actual victim. Easterbrook has not been convicted of anything.

Osborne asked why Stadthagen had not shown the same outrage toward Easterbrook, AL.com reported. So, to recap the Alabama GOP's child-protection agenda this month: two women with campaign signs, diagnosed from a podium. One of the party's own lawmakers, charged in a trafficking sting, not mentioned from that podium in either account of the event.