Andrew Sorrell

Justin Andrew Sorrell (born 1985) is an American politician who is the incumbent State Auditor of Alabama, serving since 2023.

Sorrell graduated from Muscle Shoals High School in 2004.

At age 16, Sorrell co-founded a business partnership with his brother Matthew to re-sell college textbooks.

Andrew and Matthew Sorrell became known as "the book guys" on the campus of the University of North Alabama, which they both attended.

They grew their company, Infinity College Textbooks, to forty employees and over a million dollars in revenue before selling it.

Sorrell eventually graduated and attained a business management degree from the University of North Alabama.

After graduation, Sorrell opened a pawn shop for firearms.

Sorrell was first elected to the Alabama Republican Party State Executive Committee in 2010, and still serves as chairman of its bylaws committee, as of 2022.

He unsuccessfully ran for vice chair of the Alabama Republican Party in 2021, being defeated by John Skipper, who had 53% of the vote to Sorrell's 47%.

He later restructured the business and opened a second store, named Gold, Guns, & Guitars, in April 2015.

Sorrell's other business ventures include an expansion of Gold, Guns, & Guitars to Huntsville, Alabama, and a real estate investment company, Fast Track Investments Inc.

Sorrell first became involved in politics by helping run local Republican campaigns with his brother Matthew, but found little success.

The brothers attended classes in Washington, D.C. that taught campaign management, and returned to Alabama with more expertise that helped their campaigns win more elections.

During the 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries, Sorrell was an alternate delegate for Ted Cruz, and served as a manager for Cruz's state-level campaign in Alabama's 5th congressional district.

At the time of his announcement in June 2017, the Alabama Political Reporter described Sorrell as a "well-known local anti-tax activist".

The incumbent representative, Marcel Black of the Democratic Party, decided to retire after 28 years.

Sorrell initially attempted to convince his father to run for the seat, but stood for election himself after his father declined.

He raised over $180,000 during the campaign.

Sorrell defeated Humphrey Lee in the Republican primary with 76% of the vote, and faced Democratic nominee Chad Young in the general election.

A member of the Republican Party, he previously served in the Alabama House of Representatives from 2018 to 2022, representing the 3rd district, which includes the northwestern counties of Colbert and Lawrence.

Described as a "firebrand" by Yellowhammer News, Sorrell was first elected in 2018; he was annually named as one of the "most conservative" representatives in the Alabama Legislature, as well as among the most conservative state legislators in the United States.

He was elected as state auditor in the 2022 election cycle after defeating pastor Stan Cooke in a runoff.

Sorrell was born in California; his family moved to Wisconsin when he was six weeks old.

Sorrell's father, a college instructor, took a job teaching Greek at a university.

They resided in Wisconsin for six years before Sorrell's father was laid off.

The family moved to Alabama so that Sorrell's father could take a position as a pastor at a church in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

Sorrell ran for election to the third district of the Alabama House of Representatives in the 2018 election cycle.

AL.com described the third district's election as one of the "top political races to watch in north Alabama" in 2018.

Sorrell defeated Young in the general election with 53% of the vote.

During his tenure, Sorrell was consistently named in media reports and by the Club for Growth as one of the most conservative members of the state legislature.

He voted against it when it was first passed in 2019, and co-sponsored a 2022 bill to pause the increase.

He received the 2020 Conservative Policy Warrior Award from the Alabama Policy Institute for his votes to lower taxes and reduce the size of government.

In 2021, the American Conservative Union's Center for Legislative Accountability gave Sorrell a 100% conservative rating, making him among the most conservative state legislators in the United States.

Sorrell served on the legislative committees for Ethics and Campaign Finance, Technology and Research, and Financial Services.

As state representative, Sorrell was an "outspoken opponent" of Alabama's gas tax increase.

According to Sorrell, 90% of constituents in his district opposed the gas tax during a telephone poll.

Sorrell also targeted Alabama's grocery tax in February 2020 with a bill that aimed to phase out the tax by 2040.

In September 2020, Sorrell was one of two dissenting votes opposing an anti-price gouging bill targeting repair fraud in the wake of Hurricane Sally.

Sorrell told AL.com that the rationale for his vote was that he believed such bills often had the opposite desired effect, adding "I think we should let the free market handle this stuff".

In both 2020 and 2021, Sorrell was the sole representative to vote against the state's general fund budgets.