The Tuesday primaries in Alabama set up a new round of high-profile matchups next month, while election officials and courts grappled with redistricting changes that voters said left them uncertain about which results would ultimately matter.
Former Democratic Sen. Doug Jones, seeking a political comeback, advanced as a Democratic nominee for governor, while Republican Tommy Tuberville, a former college football coach, won his own bid for the Republican nomination. The Associated Press reported that the two will meet again in November, creating a rematch that comes after Tuberville unseated Jones in 2020 for governor. In the same election cycle, candidates from both major parties headed to runoffs next month for an open U.S. Senate seat, a contest that is widely expected to remain Republican-leaning.
The governor rematch also replays the rivalry that began when Tuberville defeated Jones in their last statewide showdown. Tuberville said he is often asked about running against Jones again, but framed the contest as a competition over ideology rather than personal politics. “I’m not running against him. I’m really not. I’m running against socialism and communism,” Tuberville said, describing what he said was a far-left agenda and contrasting it with what he characterized as the country’s history.
Jones, for his part, argued that his campaign is rooted in dissatisfaction with the way voters believe the state has been governed. He said “Change means rising wages, including raising the minimum wage,” and also argued for expanding Medicaid to make healthcare affordable, along with “better jobs.” In another statement attributed to his campaign, Jones said, “For too long, folks in Montgomery have worked only for themselves and the powerful people who put them there,” framing the election as a challenge to established leadership in Alabama.
The AP account said the Republican field for the open Senate seat produced a pair of runoff matchups after Tuesday results. For the Republican nomination, U.S. Rep. Barry Moore advanced to a runoff, joining candidates for the other GOP Senate slot that was too early to call. Moore’s campaign emphasized conservative branding, and the AP reported he told supporters, “We’re going to win this thing, and God’s going to bless this great nation.”
President Donald Trump endorsed Moore, according to the AP, and the report described Trump’s remarks during a brief telephone rally Monday night: “Barry is going to do a fantastic job. He will fight for you in the Senate.” Moore, whose campaign communications tied him to a promise to be tough on Washington, also made the case for his candidacy with rhetoric that included “take out the trash,” including the line, “God’s going to send a garbage man to the United States Senate.”
For the other U.S. Senate runoff slot among Republicans, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall and former Navy SEAL Jared Hudson were in a tight race, with the result not yet finalized in the AP report. Marshall highlighted his record with other Republican-led states in court actions challenging Joe Biden’s policies and supporting Trump, while Hudson competed in the same runoff bracket.
On the Democratic side, the AP report said business owner Dakarai Larriett and lawyer Everett Wess were headed to a runoff for the Democratic Senate nomination. Either Democratic nominee would face a steep challenge in deep-red Alabama against a Republican winner, the AP said.
Beyond the governor and Senate races, Alabama’s redistricting fight became another major storyline for voters as the state prepared to void some Tuesday House primary results and rerun parts of the process. The AP report said Alabama voters cast ballots in all seven congressional districts, but the state currently plans to void results in four districts and hold new primaries in August under a different map, after Supreme Court action weakened the Voting Rights Act.
Gov. Kay Ivey scheduled special primary elections for Aug. 11 for the 1st, 2nd, 6th and 7th Congressional Districts, according to the AP. Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen told voters the Tuesday votes would be tabulated in those affected districts but would be “void for the purposes of determining the party nominees.” Allen said the Aug. 11 primary would determine nominees in winner-take-all races without a runoff.
The AP reported that the biggest change under the redrawn map involves the 2nd Congressional District, currently represented by Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures. The report described that district as stretching from Mobile through Montgomery to the Georgia border, while noting that the district lines remained subject to litigation. The AP said the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and other groups were seeking to stop the use of the new map, and that if those groups succeed, the winner of the Tuesday primary would determine party nominees. If they do not, the Aug. 11 special primary would decide which nominees appear on ballots in November.
The confusion was reflected in comments from voters on the day of the primaries, including Anthony Lee, 80, who told the AP he was upset about the state’s effort to switch maps and said, “I’m totally against them changing maps,” adding that he believed it was “diluting the Black vote.” Lee said he was unsure where the dispute stood as he voted at his polling place in Tuskegee.
The election cycle also included an attorney general runoff shaped by a recent legal controversy involving in vitro fertilization. The AP reported that former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Jay Mitchell and Katherine Robertson, the chief counsel for Attorney General Steve Marshall, advanced to a runoff for the Republican attorney general nomination, with the winner set to face Jeff McLaughlin, a former state legislator who ran unopposed in the Democratic primary. The AP said an outside group funded an advertisement critical of Mitchell for writing the main court opinion that led to in vitro fertilization clinics in the state temporarily shutting down, and that Mitchell said he supports IVF and that the ad was distorting facts from the case.