Prominent Alabama GOP secretary of state won't run in '22 KIM CHANDLER , Associated Press FacebookTwitterEmail FILE - In this Tuesday June 25 , 2019, file photo, Secretary of State John Merrill announces that he is running for the U.S. Senate during a news conference at the State Capital Building in Montgomery, Ala. Merrill said Wednesday, April 7, 2021, that he will not run for any elected office the following year because of poor choices he made that impacted his family. (Mickey Welsh/The Montgomery Advertiser via AP, File)Mickey Welsh/AP MONTGOMERY, ala. (AP) — Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill, a prominent state Republican viewed as having higher political ambitions, said Wednesday that he will not run for any elected office next year because of poor choices he made that have impacted his family.