Autauga County GOP hosts Politics in the Park ahead of 2026 elections

Elaine Wilkes, Pine Level Mayor Zachary Bigley and lieutenant governor candidate Nicole Jones Wadsworth put Autauga County Republican politics on display at the Pine Level Community Center, where the county GOP used Politics in the Park to showcase its bench ahead of the 2026 election cycle.

The April 11 gathering ran from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and was promoted as a candidate forum featuring several statewide and local Republican candidates. Alongside the politics, the event was built to draw families, with food trucks, inflatables and face painting turning the town’s community center into a one-day mix of campaigning and civic socializing. The Alabama Republican Party listed Wilkes as the contact for the event.

Bigley’s role gave the event added local weight. Pine Level officially became a town in December 2023 after a community referendum, and Bigley was sworn in on December 11, 2023 as the town’s first mayor along with the first five at-large council members. For a community that only recently took shape as a municipality, hosting countywide Republican candidates signaled that Pine Level is already being treated as part of the county’s political map rather than a newcomer on the sidelines.

The timing mattered as much as the venue. Autauga County election records list more than 44,000 registered voters, and the next Republican primary is May 19, 2026, followed by a runoff on June 16 and the general election on November 3. That calendar gives party organizers little room to waste if they want to build early name recognition, lock down volunteers and settle competing factions before ballots are cast.

Wadsworth, who is running in the Republican primary for lieutenant governor, brought a statewide ambition to the county event. Her campaign says she has visited all 67 Alabama counties more than 25 times and has done so on her own dime, a pitch aimed at presenting her as an economic-development focused candidate with broad grassroots reach. Her appearance also comes after scrutiny in Alabama political coverage over the academic titles she has used, giving voters one more issue to weigh as the primary field firms up.

For Autauga County Republicans, Politics in the Park was less a picnic than a preview of how the party plans to frame 2026: local access, county-level visibility and a direct appeal to voters who will decide whether the party’s early organizing translates into turnout.