By Maya Sweedler | Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Alabama voters head to the polls on Nov. 5 with a newly drawn congressional district and a long history of Republican dominance in the state on the line.
The Democratic candidate for president hasn’t carried Alabama since Jimmy Carter in 1976. Since then, the state has become reliably red. Both U.S. senators, six of the state’s seven members of the U.S. House and the governor are Republicans. Former President Donald Trump won the state by 28 percentage points in 2016 and 26 points four years later.
Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and three independent candidates round out the field on the presidential ballot. Alabama has nine electoral votes.
Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District was redrawn this year after the Supreme Court ruled that the state had illegally diluted the influence of Black voters. The district stretches across the lower third of the state and includes the cities of Mobile and Montgomery. Democrat Shomari Figures and Republican Caroleene Dobson are both seeking the open seat. Its voting-age population is 49 percent Black, up from 30 percent from when the district was reliably Republican.
The current representative, Barry Moore, opted to run in the neighboring 1st District where he beat incumbent Jerry Carl in the primary. The other five incumbent representatives are running for reelection in their current seats.
Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who backed litigation that resulted in the redrawing of Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District, called next week’s election in the district a historic opportunity for the state’s voters.
Holder appeared with Figures at a series of Monday campaign stops in Mobile. The National Democratic Redistricting Committee, which Holder chairs, supported the legal battle that led to the district being redrawn into a competitive seat where Black voters have the opportunity to influence the outcome.
Standing at the pulpit of Big Zion AME Zion Church, which has a 182-year history in Mobile, Holder said the nation owes a debt to the voting rights movement that began in Alabama in places like Selma and Birmingham. The way to repay that debt is to vote, he said as he urged the gathered crowd to support Figures.
“He’ll also fight for that ultimate progress where justice, fairness and equality are just the norm, not something that we point to as abnormal,” Holder said of Figures. Holder, who is Black, invoked the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. that the arc of the moral universe “bends toward justice,” but added that people “must put our hands on that arc and pull it towards justice.”
Figures worked in the Obama White House and as a former top aide to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. His campaign is being joined by several high-profile Democrats as he seeks to rally turnout. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries will appear at a Figures event in Montgomery this week.
“We can again show America that Alabama can lead the way,” Figures said Monday. “Because the truth about this seat is that this seat is at the center of determining who will be in control of the House of Representatives.”
Neither senator nor the governor is on the ballot this year, and the state’s lone ballot measure would affect only Franklin County.
Alabama doesn’t offer early in-person voting. It also is one of the few states that still requires an excuse to vote by mail. As a result, nearly all Alabama voters cast their ballots in person on Election Day. In recent elections, the state has reported more than 80 percent of its votes between poll close and midnight on Election Day.
Here’s a look at what to expect in the 2024 election in Alabama:
Election Day: Nov. 5.
Poll closing time: 7 p.m. CT
Presidential electoral votes: 9 awarded to statewide winner.
Key race and candidates: President: Harris (D) vs. Trump (R) vs. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Independent) vs. Jill Stein (Independent) vs. Chase Oliver (Independent).
Other races of interest: U.S. House, state Supreme Court, Civil Appeals, Criminal Appeals, Public Service Commission, state Board of Education and a ballot measure.
Past presidential results: 2020: Trump (R) 62 percent, Biden (D) 37 percent, AP race call: Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020, 8 p.m. ET.
Voter registration and turnout: Registered voters: 3,776,498 (as of September 2024).
Voter turnout in 2020 presidential election: 62 percent of registered voters.
Pre-Election Day voting
Votes cast before Election Day 2020: about 13 percent of the total vote.
Votes cast before Election Day 2022: about 3 percent of the total vote.
AP writer Hannah Fingerhut contributed to this report.
