John Mills says he’s running for Alabama’s 1st Congressional District seat to defend the U.S. Constitution, stand up for fellow veterans and represent all of South Alabama.
Voters in Mobile, Baldwin, Escambia and Covington counties will head to the polls Tuesday, Aug. 11, for a special election made possible by the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the case of Allen v. Milligan in June. That decision allowed Alabama to discard a court-ordered congressional map that had split the Gulf Coast and instead use a different map that federal judges had previously ruled unconstitutional in 2023.
Democratic voters will not see a primary contest on their ballots, since Daphne minister Clyde Jones is the party’s only candidate in the district. On the Republican side, Mills faces Jerry Carl, Austin Sidwell and Lucas Burger. Whichever candidate receives the most votes wins outright; there is no runoff.
Mills, a retired U.S. Navy pilot, said his background managing crises during his military career makes him well-suited to represent South Alabama in Congress. He unsuccessfully ran in 2025 for the congressional seat once held by former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz before relocating to Seminole, just across the Florida state line in Baldwin County.
“I know what a crisis is and our country’s in crisis mode,” Mills said. “I am worried about our constitutional republic being lost. We are drifting too far away from the Constitution.”
Mills said communities should not be blindsided by data center developments planned in the region, and that as a congressman he would push to involve constituents in the planning process. “We as a whole should get together and fight back,” he said.
On the long-debated question of tolls for the planned I-10 Mobile River Bridge, Mills said he is “completely against” charging motorists to use the span and believes all of the funding should be secured before construction begins. “I don’t think you should put the burdens on the backs of the people, especially on an interstate,” he said.
Mills said he doesn’t know much about the 21 million tons of coal ash Alabama Power has buried along the Mobile River, but that responsibility for addressing it should fall on the utility rather than local taxpayers. “The person creating the problem is the one who should clean it up,” he said. “If you’re creating the problem, you need to take care of the problem.”
Mills said his campaign is built on support for the Constitution, fellow veterans and South Alabama as a whole. “I’m not a polished politician nor do I ever want to be one,” he said. “If you want a patriot and you want someone who is going to stand for the Constitution and knows what their oath of office really is, then you need to vote for John Mills.”
Campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission show Carl leading the four-candidate Republican field by a wide margin. As of Wednesday, July 22, Carl had received $1.16 million in contributions and spent more than $865,000, without making any personal loans to his campaign. Sidwell reported more than $199,000 in his campaign coffers, including roughly $129,000 in personal loans, and had spent more than $194,000. Mills had raised more than $18,000, about $16,500 of it from personal loans, and had spent more than $15,000. Burger does not have a campaign committee registered with the FEC.
Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Aug. 11.