Wahl, Ensler clash over rural health care in lieutenant governor debate

Republican John Wahl and Democrat Phillip Ensler squared off Wednesday night in Alabama’s first televised debate in a statewide race since Republicans won a legislative supermajority in 2010. The two candidates are competing for lieutenant governor in next week’s election.

The hourlong debate hosted by WHNT covered many expected topics, with the candidates reiterating plans and platforms outlined in campaign ads and on their websites. But there were surprises, including Wahl’s suggestion for addressing the state’s rural health care crisis.

“As far as solving the areas already in this crisis, I really want to look at creative outside-the-box solutions,” Wahl said. “I'm a small business man. I don't always think the answer is bigger government; sometimes it's partnering with local partners whether it's nonprofits or local doctors, nursing homes that already have doctors on staff. We can create triage centers where people can go and have somewhere, small emergency rooms across the state where they can go and get immediate care and especially get stabilized in the case of serious injury and then get transported to a bigger hospital.”

“I'm a little bit confused: if someone's having a heart attack or a woman wants to deliver a baby, I'm not sure how a nursing home can help with that,” Ensler said.

“I think it goes back to this simple: nursing homes have doctors and nurses on staff,” Wahl said. “This is what I'm talking about. Career politicians don't understand that sometimes you have to look outside the box.”

Wahl said the first priority is preventing more rural hospitals from closing, although he did not specify how the Legislature would do that.

Ensler offered a more straightforward answer, reiterating Democrats’ yearslong call to expand Medicaid.

“I visited most recently in Greene County and asked the director of that hospital ‘What is the single biggest thing that will keep your hospital open?’ and he said expanding Medicaid,” Ensler said.

Both candidates addressed affordability and offered similar approaches, but differed on which party could better deliver.

“I look at the record with our state legislature like cutting the grocery tax ... I think records are important when you look at issues like this; it's been the Republican leadership that has made these tax cuts—almost $1.5 billion in tax cuts over the last four years,” Wahl said. “Don't forget that Democrats had control of the state Legislature for 130 years and couldn't get the job done. It's only once Republicans got into the Statehouse that we were able to go in, balance the budgets, pay off some of the debt and then start providing actual tax cuts for the people of Alabama.”

Ensler countered that most of today’s affordability issues stem from Republican policies at the national level.

“Let's be abundantly clear: the biggest reason they are hurting is because of Trump's war overseas from an agenda that, John, you support,” Ensler said. “That's an agenda that is raising gas prices, it is raising the price of fertilizer and diesel on our farmers, the tariffs and the trade wars supported by the president that got you in this race that you have you stood by ... So we need to do things like cut the grocery tax ... We have got to cut the tax on overtime for hourly workers, we should cut the tax on farm equipment, we should have a living wage so Alabamians can actually afford their bills.”

Wahl also faced questions about his residency, which has drawn challenges throughout the campaign. He turned that scrutiny toward Ensler’s connections to New York City.

Wahl said Ensler remained registered to vote in New York as recently as 2025 and voted there in 2014 and 2016. Ensler emphasized that he passed the Alabama bar in 2017 and has voted in Alabama ever since. Registering to vote in a new state does not automatically remove a voter from another state’s rolls.

Wahl has faced scrutiny over a Tennessee residence and a 2020 affidavit in which he swore he was a legal resident of Tennessee. That falls within the seven-year continuous residency requirement for the office. Wahl also obtained a Tennessee driver’s license and registered to vote in Tennessee.

“You either committed perjury or voter fraud,” Ensler said.

Early in the debate, Wahl portrayed himself as an outsider despite years of work in politics, drawing a personal attack from Ensler.

“John, you say you're an outsider and not part of the establishment—you worked for Roy Moore, a known pedophile, you then got a fake ID from a political buddy to vote in Alabama, you then received a donation from Christopher Drummond for almost half a million dollars—so very much an insider getting those donations—and then you've been party chair,” Ensler said. “So you can say you're an outsider all you want but you're not. You're part of the establishment and part of an agenda that has been hurting people.”

One of the race’s most contentious issues yielded little difference between the candidates: Both urged caution and restraint when recruiting data centers.

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day, Tuesday, November 3.