Alabama’s Tuesday primary results will carry into a new phase of campaigning for federal offices, with Gov. Kay Ivey’s state office setting the calendar for runoffs while a parallel redistricting fight threatens to upend congressional nominations. Former Democratic Sen. Doug Jones and GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville each won their parties’ governor nominations, rekindling a rivalry that ended in Tuberville’s favor when he unseated Jones six years ago.
Jones, who was elected to the U.S. Senate in a special election in 2017 but served only a short term in the state’s largely Republican political environment, used the governor’s race to frame his bid as a comeback. In quoted remarks, Jones said, “Change means rising wages, including raising the minimum wage,” and also called for “expanding Medicaid to make healthcare affordable,” along with “better jobs.”
Tuberville, a former college football coach who previously defeated Jones after President Donald Trump backed his Senate candidacy, turned the governor’s rematch into an argument about competing ideologies rather than a personal matchup. Tuberville told voters he was not running against Jones, saying, “I’m not running against him. I’m really not. I’m running against socialism and communism,” adding that he was opposing an ideology he described as “so far left” and claiming it “has nothing to do with the last 250 years” that he said made the country “great.”
The governor’s race is set against the backdrop of national-level legal and electoral uncertainty tied to redistricting. The AP reported that congressional maps may change soon after a U.S. Supreme Court decision severely weakened the Voting Rights Act, which could lead to additional primaries in August under a redrawn map that left many voters confused.
For the open U.S. Senate seat, both parties’ paths converge on runoff elections next month. The runoff for the Senate nomination between the Republican and Democratic nominees is set for June 16, with the AP describing the seat as “all but certain” to remain red in Alabama. In the Republican primary, U.S. Rep. Barry Moore advanced to a runoff for the GOP nomination, and Trump endorsed Moore, giving him an added boost in the crowded field.
Moore’s supporters heard religious and populist-leaning rhetoric as well as a pledge of toughness aimed at Washington. Moore told supporters Tuesday night, “We’re going to win this thing, and God’s going to bless this great nation,” and during a brief telephone rally, Trump said, “Barry is going to do a fantastic job. He will fight for you in the Senate.” Moore, who owns an industrial waste hauling business, also said through his campaign that he would “take out the trash” in Washington, and he repeated that idea Tuesday night, saying, “God’s going to send a garbage man to the United States Senate.”
On the other Republican runoff spot, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall and former Navy SEAL Jared Hudson were in a tight race that was too early to call as of the AP’s reporting. The AP said Marshall emphasized his record, including work with other Republican-led states in court actions challenging former President Joe Biden’s policies and supporting Trump.
Democratic nominees also head to a runoff, with business owner Dakarai Larriett and lawyer Everett Wess each advancing. Either Democratic contender would face an uphill climb in Alabama, according to the AP’s reporting, in a state described as deeply Republican.
Alongside the Senate and governor contests, redistricting has introduced a separate set of election rules that could change which House candidates ultimately appear on fall ballots. Residents voted Tuesday in all seven congressional districts, but Alabama plans to void the results in four districts and hold new primaries in August under a different map.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey scheduled special primary elections on Aug. 11 for the 1st, 2nd, 6th and 7th Congressional Districts. The AP said the change followed permission for Alabama to switch to a different congressional map that could help Republicans win a House seat in November. Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen said Tuesday’s votes will be tabulated in the affected districts, but will be “void for the purposes of determining the party nominees,” with the Aug. 11 primary intended to determine nominees without a runoff, in winner-take-all contests.
The AP reported that the largest shift centers on the 2nd Congressional District, which is currently represented by Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures and, under the prior lines, stretched from Mobile through Montgomery to the Georgia border. The district lines are also the subject of litigation, with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and other groups seeking to stop the use of the new map; if the legal challenge succeeds, the winner of the Tuesday primary would determine the party nominees, but if the new map proceeds, the Aug. 11 special primary would set the nominees.
At one polling place in Tuskegee, Anthony Lee, 80, said he opposed changing maps and told reporters, “I’m totally against them changing maps,” adding, “It’s diluting the Black vote.” Lee also said he was unsure where the dispute stood.
The attorney general race further illustrates how Alabama’s Republican primary is also feeding into runoffs. 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 nomination. The eventual winner will face Jeff McLaughlin, a former state legislator who ran unopposed in the Democratic primary, according to the AP.
In the attorney general GOP field, the AP described an advertisement funded by an outside group critical of Mitchell for writing the main court opinion tied to in vitro fertilization clinics in the state temporarily shutting down. The reporting said the decision relied on an Alabama law from 1872 and found that frozen embryos could be considered “unborn children,” allowing couples to pursue wrongful death claims after embryos were destroyed in a hospital accident; Mitchell responded that he supports IVF and said the ad was distorting the facts of the case.