Alabamans will vote in new House districts

Editor’s note: This report was updated Oct. 31.

STATE STATS

Voter makeup: The office of Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen reports 3,776,498 active registered voters in the state as of September. The state does not report voter data by party, but former President Donald Trump won 62 percent of the vote in 2020. Active voter registration has remained stable at about 3 million since 2019, receiving a slight spike in 2020.

Voting: Casting a ballot requires identification at the polls, and registration cuts off two weeks before Election Day. Alabama does not practice mail-in voting but does allow voting by absentee ballot in certain circumstances. Recently enacted voting laws include:

• A 2021 voter fraud amendment that makes it a misdemeanor to vote or attempt to vote more than once in Alabama or another state.

• A 2022 amendment that gives a judge authority to decide a tied state election by lot.

PRESIDENTIAL

President Joe Biden won 165,567 votes in Alabama’s primary on Super Tuesday, winning an 89.5 percent majority. Following Biden’s withdrawal from the campaign, all 52 Alabama Democratic National Committee delegates pledged to support Vice President Kamala Harris as the party’s 2024 nominee.

Former President Donald Trump received 486,883 votes—an 83.3 percent majority. Since Alabama is not a major swing state, not many polls have been conducted about the presidential election. According to a Florida Atlantic University poll published this month, Trump has a 20-point lead over Biden among voters.

U.S. HOUSE

Alabama’s seven seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are up for grabs, with only one Democrat currently in office. This election cycle will see a bit of a shakeup after a 2023 Supreme Court ruling ordered state leaders to redraw the congressional district map to add another majority black district. As lawmakers continue discussing potential drafts, a panel of judges ruled that the proposed remedial map would be used during the 2024 election, adding a second black-majority district. Republicans have held all but one seat since 1994. A Democrat has represented the 7th District, which includes much of Birmingham, since 1986. The new might provide Democrats more opportunities to challenge the GOP’s long-standing dominance in the 1st, 2nd, and 6th Districts.

• Rep. Barry Moore will face the Democratic presumptive candidate Tom Holmes in the 1st District. 

• Democratic candidate Shomari Figures and Republican Caroleen Dobson will vie to represent the state’s new 2nd District, which is expected to lean left. An August poll by Impact Research showed Figures with a 12-point lead. Republican Rep. Gary Palmer will run against the uncontested Democratic candidate, Elizabeth Anderson, in the historically red 6th District.

• Democratic Rep. Terri A. Sewell represents the 7th District after a landslide primary vote of over 90 percent and is projected to trounce GOP nominee Robin Litaker. GOP Reps. Mike Rogers, Robert Aderholt, and Dale Strong, representing the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Districts respectively, are running uncontested and will keep their seats in the next Congress.

JUDICIAL ELECTIONS

Conservative justices currently hold all nine seats on the state Supreme Court, but four are set to appear on the ballot. Chief Justice Tom Parker will retire at the end of this year, but his absence is unlikely to change the balance of the bench. The court has been in the national eye after a controversial ruling that held that fertilized and frozen embryos created in vitro fertilization should be considered children under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act. The February ruling sparked national discussion and a flurry of legislation from both state and federal lawmakers to protect IVF.

• Alabama Supreme Court Justice Sarah Stewart will represent the Republican Party in the state’s partisan election for chief justice. She joined the majority opinion in the landmark IVF case. Stewart says she believes in “conservative judicial values,” vowing to “fiercely safeguard our freedoms enshrined in the Constitution.” She will face Democratic Judge Greg Griffin Sr. who has served in Alabama’s 15th Judicial Circuit for a decade. Griffin presided over a notable 2020 case in which he sided with Gov. Kay Ivey’s mask mandate and dismissed arguments against it in Munza v. Ivey.

• Conservative Justices Tommy Bryan, Jay Mitchell, and William Sellers are uncontested in their reelection campaigns, with Criminal Appeals Judge Chris McCool seeking uncontested election to the state’s highest court.

Dig deeper:

Listen to Jenny Rough and Nick Eicher’s report on Alabama redrawing its congressional district map on The World and Everything In It. Also read Leah Savas’ report on the national effects of the Alabama Supreme Court’s embryo ruling.

Visit the WORLD Election Center 2024 to follow our state-by-state coverage between now and November.