Alabama nominee Gregory Cook warned of the “woke mob” and told voters “we cannot let the Democrats win”
“Wokeness is finally losing ground,” he said after Trump’s reelection. “Savor this moment.”
During a campaign speech in 2022 while running for Alabama Supreme Court justice, Gregory Cook asked those in attendance to vote for him — and to stop any Democrat from winning elected office in the state.
According to notes shared with the Senate Judiciary Committee as part of his Senate questionnaire, Cook referred to the Republican Party as “the last great hope for America” — stating that “I know some of you might think that the Supreme Court of Alabama might be boring or might not have much chance of stopping Joe Biden. But in the last election — we saw the truth — the WOKE mob is trying to take over every office. Every single office is now on the front lines — and let me tell you — the Alabama Supreme Court — along with your local probate judge, sheriff and circuit clerk [are] vital to make our elections legal and secure. We need every single office — up and down the ballot — and we all need to be on the same team now that the primary is over.”
“We cannot let the Democrats win,” he said. “We cannot.”
Cook is now a nominee for a lifetime judgeship on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.
That speech was not the first — or last — time that Cook railed against Democrats and what he referred to as the “woke mob.” In May 2022, he released a campaign video positioning himself as the anti-woke hero that Alabama needs on the bench. “The woke mob attacks our Alabama values. They mock our religion, families, and election laws. That’s why we need proven conservative Greg Cook,” the video’s voiceover stated, while it flashed images of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. “The woke mob won’t like Greg Cook. But that’s why we need him.”
“As an attorney for the past 30 years, I see the direction our country is going — and I don’t like it,” Cook said in another video, which was created during the Biden administration.
“FORGET about the primaries and who you supported,” Cook wrote in his notes for another campaign speech with the Escambia County Republican Party. “ANY REPUBLICAN IS BETTER THAN ANY DEMOCRAT.”
In a radio interview three days before his election, Cook, in reference to Democrats, stated that “They think the United States is evil, Shannon. They think our history is evil. They think our government is oppressive somehow. They just believe in a different world than we do. We need to be ready to put forward a vision of government that can solve problems. And that doesn’t mean creating big government.”
“Part of our job as Republicans is to make sure we can run the government if the voters give us the keys,” he said.
Later in the interview, Cook pointed to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as a hero of free speech (as opposed to the ACLU, which Cook said is “all about people who are triggered or offended or somehow hurt by free speech”). “Folks are standing up,” he said. “Ron DeSantis is a core example of someone who’s standing up and being willing to say things — even if the left makes fun of him. Even if the left attacks him. And I think that we really need to, as conservatives, be willing to take those spears and arrows. It is our job to speak the truth.”
He was, of course, pleased when Trump regained the presidency following the 2024 election. During a Madison County Republican Party breakfast in Huntsville in December 2024, Cook hyped up Trump’s victory the previous month. “I want to talk a little about the wonderful relief that I sense in our nation after the presidential election. You can just feel everyone breathing a sigh of relief,” he told breakfast attendees, according to notes he shared with the Judiciary Committee. “To borrow a line from a prior president, the great national nightmare is over. Wokeness is finally losing ground.”
“Wokeness is not going to suddenly cease on the day of the inauguration,” Cook said. “BUT, at least we are starting. At least we are on the right track. I urge you to stop and appreciate this moment. This was a significant and history changing election. This is a Reagan type moment. Savor this moment. These type[s] of history making moments don’t happen every day.”
Cook urged people not to believe that local positions are nonpartisan, citing “what woke members of school boards or library boards have done.” He said the only way to ensure that “the local people” are making policy choices is “for conservatives to get out of the stands and get on the playing field.”
A longtime member of the Federalist Society, Cook volunteered for Alabama’s Republican Party for decades, and he made his fealty to the party a key message of the campaign. In speeches, he routinely said that he not only talks the talk about being a committed Republican, but walks the walk as well. “I am conservative,” he said in response to one candidate survey. “I was a Republican before it was cool to be a Republican.”
In that survey, he also stated that “My duty to God is always at the center of my life.” He cited the Bible as his favorite book, referring to it as “my handbook for my life.”
In remarks earlier this year as a panelist at Harvard Law School’s Faith & Veritas seminar, Cook wrote in prepared notes that, as Christian lawyers, “We must remember that our relationship with Christ predates our bar card and will outlast our retirement. Every discovery dispute, every request for a trial continuance, and every heated deposition is an opportunity to either polish, or tarnish our Christian witness — witness to everyone involved in the legal process.” In response to whether Christian lawyers and judges should think of their jobs as opportunities to glorify God, he wrote “Absolutely.”
Intermittently from about 2010-2020, according to his Senate questionnaire, Cook was a member of the Christian Legal Society (CLS). “As Christians, we are called to serve God in all we think, say, and do,” their membership page states. The organization’s Center for Law & Religious Freedom is an anti-abortion advocacy center that’s filed briefs in cases like Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (their brief in that case was authored by Ken Starr).
“The Center defends the sanctity of human life in many ways, including opposing abortion, protecting the conscience of those who object to performing or having their health plans cover abortion, supporting adoption and foster care, opposing physician-assisted suicide, supporting ministry to single mothers (including defending crisis pregnancy centers against intimidation by aggressive state attorneys general), and fighting against human trafficking,” their website states.
In speech after speech following his election, Cook referenced the Dobbs decision, which was issued while he was campaigning. “Dobbs made me focus on the rule of law as a touchstone as I talked to people on the campaign trail,” he said. “People became acutely aware of the importance of electing judicial conservatives to their state Supreme Court if they wanted a court which would say what the law is, rather than what it should be.”
“The Dobbs decision is just the opposite of an activist court,” he said in one radio interview. “They did not rule that abortion is prohibited. They ruled that that is an issue that’s not covered in the Constitution, and therefore, it ought to go back to the states.”
Cook repeatedly sought to paint Republicans as the rule of law party and Democrats as the ones who are facilitating the appointment of activist judges deciding cases based on ideology alone. “Judges should not legislate from the bench, but should apply the law as it is written. Instead of calling balls and strikes, activist judges can deliver home runs for progressive policies. We cannot allow this to happen in Alabama.” As Cook said these words in one of his campaign videos, images flashed across the screen — including signs supporting abortion access and gun safety measures, and an image of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris high-fiving.
“I proudly served as a delegate for Donald Trump because he told it like it was. I’m a conservative, grounded in principle, who believes that a judge is there to apply the law as it is written,” Cook said in the video.
Two weeks ago, when Cook was nominated, I wrote more about his obsession with election law and his support for more restrictive voting measures. That, combined with his deeply partisan career attacking Democrats and the “woke mob,” makes it easy to understand why Trump wants him on the bench — especially ahead of upcoming elections.
Cook must now answer under oath, at his hearing and in response to written questions, how he can fairly and neutrally decide cases after making statements like “the woke mob attacks our Alabama values” and “our relationship with Christ predates our bar card.” Is he more interested in glorifying God and following the Bible’s teachings — or in upholding the law and ensuring equal justice for all? Does he still believe that “ANY REPUBLICAN IS BETTER THAN ANY DEMOCRAT” — and that Democrats think the United States is evil?
Given the dates that recent nominees returned their questionnaires, that hearing may not be until August 5.