Alabama Democrats Call Nov. 3 Their Best Chance in 25 Years as Turnout Push Meets Long Odds

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama Democrats say the Nov. 3 general election gives them their best chance in a quarter-century to win statewide office and hold a closely watched congressional seat, and they are betting that anger over redistricting and worries about the cost of living will drive voters to the polls in numbers the party has not seen in years.

State Sen. Bobby Singleton, the new leader of the Alabama Democratic Party, said Democrats have “the best chance we’ve had in 25 years” to win statewide offices. Republicans, however, hold every statewide office, a supermajority in the Alabama Legislature and a heavy advantage in fundraising, and the party’s nominee for governor, U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, remains the favorite in the top race on the ballot.

For Democrats, who typically have far less money and organizational support than Republicans in Alabama, the outcome is expected to turn on whether they can bring out both white and Black voters, particularly in cities such as Montgomery and Huntsville.

A volunteer’s view from the Wiregrass

In Enterprise, a Coffee County city of about 31,000 people in the Wiregrass, Allie Reddick is known as someone neighbors call when they need help paying a light bill or finding a new apartment. At this time of year, she also helps people vote.

Reddick typically volunteers with the Alabama Democratic Conference, a political organization that supports Black candidates, and she has also worked on campaigns for Enterprise Mayor Bill Cooper. On a recent weekday, she drove a Coffee County voter to the county seat to turn in absentee ballot request forms, then stopped by churches to tuck Alabama Democratic Conference sample ballots into foyer doors.

She said the redrawing of the 2nd Congressional District, now represented by U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures, D-Mobile, has energized people she knows.

“This election is different because the way they’ve done this, with Shomari, it’s just plain as day,” said Reddick, a longtime resident. “You’re trying to steal votes? You’re trying to cut us out? You don’t want Black representation in Congress, you want all white representation? Well, we’ll show up to vote.”

Vernetta DeRamus, 92, who also grew up in the area and worked as a teacher and administrator in then-segregated schools and later in the school system’s central office, put it more simply. “America is in trouble,” she said. “We have to turn this thing around.”

The 2nd District: Figures vs. Marques

Democrats believe they can hold the 2nd District seat Figures won in 2024. He is one of several Black lawmakers in the South whose districts were targeted in redistricting as Republicans try to pick up U.S. House seats in the midterms.

Alabama’s congressional map was redrawn after a U.S. Supreme Court decision earlier this year allowed the state to move away from the court-ordered map that had created a second district where Black voters could elect a candidate of their choice. The redrawn 2nd District takes in Montgomery, Dothan and much of the Wiregrass and is considered more favorable to Republicans than the version Figures won two years ago.

Figures faces Republican state Rep. Rhett Marques of Enterprise, who is campaigning on his support for President Donald Trump and his record in the Alabama Legislature. At a rally in Montgomery, the district’s largest city, Figures focused on prices.

“Gas is too high,” Figures said. “This war in Iran is driving up gas prices, fertilizer prices. But we can stop it. It takes all of us.”

Marques framed the race as a choice of values. “It comes down to, do you want to go the Christian conservative way, or do you want to go the socialist way?” he said at an event in Montgomery County.

The two candidates have traded accusations over taxes. Figures voted against measures in Trump’s 2025 tax-and-spending package, which Republicans called the “big beautiful bill” and which included tax reductions. Marques voted in 2019, along with most of the Legislature, to raise the state gas tax as part of a road and bridge funding plan.

Analysts have said the governor’s race could affect the congressional contest. Even if Doug Jones, the Democratic nominee for governor, falls short, a boost in Democratic turnout could help candidates further down the ballot, a factor political groups have cited when rating the Figures-Marques race.

Jones and Tuberville: a rematch

The governor’s race is a rematch of the 2020 U.S. Senate race, in which Tuberville defeated Jones, who then held the seat. Jones, a former U.S. attorney, won the Senate seat in a 2017 special election and is the last Democrat to win a statewide race in Alabama. If he wins Tuesday, he would be the first Democrat elected governor of Alabama since 1998.

Some polls estimate Jones will finish within 10 points of Tuberville, which would make the race closer than their 2020 contest. Tuberville, a former Auburn University football coach, has a large lead in fundraising and support and has the endorsement of Trump.

“I don’t know what Doug Jones believes in, but he’s a follower,” Tuberville said at a Shelby County Republican event. “He’s going to follow Joe Biden and Obama and all of that nonsense. I’m done with that.”

Jones has held town halls across the state, where voters have raised concerns about the rising cost of living, data centers and the affordability of health care. At a gathering in Pine Grove in Baldwin County, he told supporters he needed them to turn out.

“I can’t get across the finish line without you,” Jones said. “I get asked all the time, why should I vote? My vote doesn’t count. Nothing changes. If your vote doesn’t count, why in the world are they trying so hard to take it away from you?”

In an interview, Jones said he believes he can win. “We’re doing exactly what I have tried to explain that Democrats should be doing all along, and that’s trying to win back the confidence of some voters who have been conditioned and really poisoned about the Democratic Party,” he said.

Amy Myers, a Birmingham lawyer making calls at a volunteer event for the Jones campaign, said she has never been more motivated. “I’ve never felt this strongly,” she said. “There’s just so much graft and corruption. I believe in the rule of law, and I’ve seen it attacked, and I just don’t want this for my children and grandchildren.”

J. Miles Coleman, an associate editor with an election analysis newsletter at the University of Virginia, said turnout has been the party’s chronic problem. “Since the Obama times, Democrats have really struggled with turnout,” Coleman said. “One of the exceptions in the past decade was Doug Jones, when he was first elected, so he is probably the best potential candidate that the Democrats could have put up.”

Down-ballot: cost of living, state jobs and data centers

Democrats running for other offices are warning voters about what they describe as the risks of continued Republican supermajority control in Montgomery. Republicans counter that their candidates will cut taxes, reduce government spending and support Trump’s agenda.

State Rep. Phillip Ensler, the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, faces Republican John Wahl, a former chairman of the Alabama Republican Party. Ensler said he meets voters who “feel like they have been sold a bunch of lies” by Republican leadership.

In Montgomery County, where Ensler lives and which is expected to be crucial in the 2nd District, he said residents are worried about the cost of living and about what a change in state government could mean for their jobs. Many people there work for state government, and some are concerned about Tuberville’s promise to “DOGE” the state — a reference to the federal Department of Government Efficiency effort to cut spending — and what it could mean for their jobs and benefits. Tuberville has said he would audit state spending.

Ensler has also visited nearby Lowndes County, where residents are fighting a proposed $1.1 billion data center.

“People in different sectors and different walks of life are all feeling the pain of these national policies,” Ensler said. “Then they see on the state level how many Republicans tie themselves to Trump and will not buck that agenda and that party line. And then the data center issues. There’s so many Republicans that say to me that on that one issue, they’re crossing over to vote for a Democrat.”

Data centers have become one of the sharper policy differences in the governor’s race. Tuberville has supported data center development as an economic opportunity, while Jones has called for pausing new data center construction for a year while the state writes regulations.

Redistricting backlash and Black turnout

In areas with large numbers of Black voters, Democrats are also campaigning on voting rights and democracy.

Jerome Dees, who works for the SPLC and was involved in opposing the redistricting, said turnout among Black voters has been low in recent election cycles. “It’s about a decade now of disillusionment with the performance of elected officials,” he said.

“We are at a point now in our politics, in our society in Alabama, where young folks are appreciative of the work of the civil rights movement. They appreciate the sacrifice, but they are looking at their local governments, their state representatives, their congressional representatives, and saying, ‘But what has that, what has that borne out for us 60, 70, years later?’” Dees said.

Some experts say the redistricting push could backfire on Republicans, who at the national level are directing money and support into the same districts. “I know this has been upsetting to a lot of people, and it could be a case of be careful what you wish for,” said Richard Fording, a political science professor at the University of Alabama. “We’ve already seen it lead to a higher level of turnout.”

U.W. Clemon, Alabama’s first Black federal judge and a lawyer and plaintiff in many civil rights cases involving voting and education, said Black voters must push back against efforts that could dilute their votes. “The struggle continues, as it always has,” Clemon said. “We are not strangers to bigotry and prejudice. We’ve been fighting it all our lives. And we’ll continue to do so.”

What voters need to know

The governor’s race tops a long ballot that also includes lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state and other statewide offices; an open U.S. Senate seat; all seven U.S. House seats; the Alabama Legislature; county offices; and four proposed statewide constitutional amendments.

• Election Day: Tuesday, Nov. 3
• Poll hours: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. statewide
• Identification: Alabama requires voters to show a valid photo ID.
• Where to vote: Voters can confirm their polling place and view a sample ballot through the Alabama Secretary of State’s office.

The winner of the governor’s race will succeed Gov. Kay Ivey, who is term-limited, in January.