MOBILE, Ala. — Republican Jerry Carl won election Tuesday to Alabama’s 1st Congressional District, returning to the U.S. House seat he held from 2021 to 2025 after defeating Democrat Clyde Jones Jr., a Daphne minister and Army veteran.
Carl had 59% of the vote and Jones had 41%, according to the Alabama Secretary of State’s website, and the race was called for Carl. Results remain unofficial until they are certified.
Unofficial totals reported around midnight showed Carl with 137,016 votes to 94,925 for Jones. Earlier in the night, with 64% of the vote counted, Carl led 54.5% to 45.5%, and the race was called in his favor by about 10:15 p.m.
“This has been a roller coaster of a campaign,” Carl told supporters at a Mobile County Republican Party gathering. “And to finish out where we’re at is so exciting. I’m so excited to represent District 1.”
He said there would be “some new things, some challenging things” ahead and thanked those who voted for and invested in his campaign. “I promise you, District 1, it will pay off,” he said, closing with, “God bless you, good night, and on to D.C.”
Carl’s election-night party was held at the Fort Whiting Reception Hall in Mobile and drew a crowd of Baldwin County and local officials, including County Commissioner John “Tater” Harris, outgoing state Rep. Matt Simpson, Spanish Fort Mayor Brad Bass and former Baldwin County Sheriff Huey Mack. About 30 minutes before the polls closed, Carl said his campaign had been watching actual vote counts all day and that turnout in Republican precincts was “very high.” He later thanked voters in a Facebook post: “Thank you, Alabama! I look forward to doing great things for each one of you in Washington DC. Thank you to everyone for your support.”
A seat shaped by redistricting
The win caps a turn in Carl’s political career driven largely by changes to Alabama’s congressional map.
Carl spent eight years on the Mobile County Commission before running in 2020 for the seat left open when Bradley Byrne made an unsuccessful bid for U.S. Senate. A court-ordered redistricting in 2023 reshaped the district to take in the Wiregrass region and put Carl in a Republican primary against fellow U.S. Rep. Barry Moore. Carl lost that 2024 primary, and his term ended in 2025.
The map changed again this year. South AL News previously reported that U.S. Supreme Court rulings in the Allen v. Milligan litigation allowed the state to return to lines the Legislature approved in 2023, and the district was redrawn during a special legislative session. The new 1st District includes Mobile and Baldwin counties, Escambia County and most of Covington County, bringing the Mobile Bay region back together after a period in which the area was split between the 1st and 2nd districts. Nonpartisan election analysts have rated the new district R+17, meaning it leans solidly Republican.
The change also opened the way for Carl’s return. Moore left the House seat to run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Tommy Tuberville, who ran for governor. Carl then entered the race for the reconfigured district and won a four-way special Republican primary in August over Austin Sidwell, John Mills and Lucas Burger, finishing more than 17,000 votes ahead of the field.
He was endorsed by President Donald Trump and U.S. Sen. Katie Britt.
A campaign over affordability and a debate
Both candidates named the cost of living as a leading concern for the district, though they differed on what Congress should do about it.
Carl said in an earlier interview that affordability was, “without a doubt,” the biggest issue for voters. He pledged to lower fuel, utility and food costs by recruiting companies with higher wages to South Alabama. His campaign website said he would “support President Trump and his America First agenda,” vote to build a wall along the Mexican border and keep “critical race theory and woke ideology” out of public school classrooms. It also tied his support for a balanced budget amendment and cuts in federal spending to efforts to bring down inflation.
“We needed representation, someone who wanted to represent everyone — not one particular party, but everyone that’s in congressional district one,” Jones told South AL News in October.
Jones said he entered the race in October 2025 because he was “troubled by the direction of our country and the continued divisive rhetoric coming out of Washington, D.C.” His campaign called for expanding Medicaid, giving communities more say in data center projects and advancing immigration reform. He also said Congress should restore the enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits that expired at the end of last year, saying their loss had pushed premiums higher. Enrollment in Alabama marketplace coverage dropped by about 23%, or roughly 95,000 people, after the credits lapsed, South AL News reported.
The sharpest public exchange of the race came over a debate. Jones called Carl’s refusal to meet him in a debate “cowardly.” Carl answered, “A debate only brings life to the Democrats’ socialist platform.”
Redistricting also shaped how the candidates campaigned. Jones told South AL News in October that many voters in the city of Mobile did not know their district had changed, so he often opened speeches there by saying he was not running against Figures, the 2nd District’s incumbent. Carl said then that his main concern was Republican turnout, warning that the district’s lean should not be taken for granted.
“If they (Republicans) take that same comfort level in this race, we could easily lose,” Carl said at the time.
Who Carl defeated, and what comes next
Jones was making his first run for the U.S. House. According to his campaign, he spent 21 years in the Army Signal Corps, served during Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom II and received the Bronze Star Medal. He moved to South Alabama in 2013 to work for DuPont and later retired from FMC Corp. He is an associate minister at Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church and has served as president of Alabama Arise’s board of directors.
Two days before the election, Jones pointed to low participation in this year’s primaries as the challenge facing his campaign. “One of the things we’ve done to engage voters that haven’t been engaged — just talking to people. Meeting people where they are at,” he said at a Democratic rally in downtown Mobile.
On election night, Jones held a watch party at Fairhope Brewing that drew representatives of statewide and local races and groups such as Indivisible. Early returns favored Carl, but Jones said he stayed optimistic. After the race was called, he congratulated Carl and said he had learned a lot on the campaign trail and would stay active in the community. “I want to encourage Congressman-elect to make sure he speaks to his constituents and that he is here and listens to what people have to say,” Jones said. Calling it a good night for Democrats nationally but not in Alabama, he said change is on the horizon and may just take longer.
Carl, a Mobile businessman, has cited more than four decades in private business, in addition to his years in county and federal office, as his main qualification for the job. Carl takes office in January for a two-year term representing a district that includes the Port of Mobile, the Eastern Shore and Baldwin County’s Gulf beaches, along with timber and farm country farther inland.
Carl named several priorities for a district that again includes Baldwin County: protecting the ancient cypress forest off the coast, overseeing the Mobile River Bridge and Bayway Project that will connect Mobile and Baldwin counties, and addressing infrastructure. “I’d love to see us take the Beach Expressway all the way to I-65,” he said, adding that Baldwin County is “a huge player in our district” and that Covington and Escambia counties would not be forgotten.
Alabama House Speaker Pro Tempore Chris Pringle, R-Mobile, said the combination of Mobile and Baldwin counties worked in Carl’s favor because Carl had represented Escambia, Baldwin and Mobile counties before. “The only new county you had was Covington,” Pringle said, calling Carl “a known entity” with “a strong base.”
