MOBILE, Ala. — The Nov. 3 ballot in Mobile and Baldwin counties will settle Alabama’s next governor, a new U.S. senator, the state’s congressional delegation, every seat in the Alabama Legislature and a long list of statewide and county offices, along with four proposed amendments to the state constitution and two Mobile County ballot questions.
Absentee voting began in September, but most voters will cast ballots in person Tuesday. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and voters must bring a valid photo ID. Polling places and sample ballots are available through the Alabama Secretary of State’s office.
The election follows an unusually turbulent year. Alabama’s seven congressional districts were redrawn this summer after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June, putting Mobile and Baldwin counties back together in the 1st Congressional District after they had been split between the 1st and 2nd districts. Lawsuits claiming U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville did not meet the seven-year residency requirement to run for governor were dismissed by the Alabama Supreme Court this month. And President Donald Trump, speaking at a rally in Mobile in October, urged Alabama Republicans to vote as if he were on the ballot, calling this “the most important midterm election we ever had.”
Here is a guide to the major races and questions South Alabama voters will see.
Governor, lieutenant governor and U.S. Senate
Governor: Republican Tommy Tuberville and Democrat Doug Jones meet again six years after Tuberville unseated Jones in the 2020 U.S. Senate race. The winner will succeed Republican Gov. Kay Ivey, who cannot run again.
Tuberville, a former Auburn University football coach, has served in the Senate since 2021, defeated two Republican primary challengers in May and has Trump’s endorsement. He has campaigned on cutting taxes, creating jobs and supporting Trump’s agenda, and he has pledged to eliminate the remaining state grocery tax and audit state spending. He supports expanding school choice and backs data center development as an economic opportunity.
Jones, a former federal prosecutor who served in the Senate from 2018 to 2021, defeated five rivals in the Democratic primary. He has emphasized affordability, health care and economic opportunity. He also supports eliminating the grocery tax and favors expanding Medicaid, raising the minimum wage and tightening oversight of utility rates. Unlike Tuberville, Jones wants to roll back the state’s school choice program and pause new data center construction for a year while the state sets regulations.
Lieutenant governor: Republican John Wahl, who chaired the Alabama Republican Party from 2021 to 2026 and leads the Alabama Public Library Service Board, faces Democratic state Rep. Phillip Ensler of Montgomery. The winner replaces term-limited Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth. Wahl, endorsed by Trump, beat Secretary of State Wes Allen in the June runoff and is running on ending the grocery tax, cutting regulations, school choice and election security. Ensler, an attorney and former teacher elected to the House in 2022, helped advance state laws banning Glock switches, devices that convert semiautomatic firearms to fire automatically. He is campaigning on Medicaid expansion, grocery tax cuts, public education, health care costs and letting voters decide on a lottery.
U.S. Senate: Tuberville’s run for governor opened his Senate seat. Republican U.S. Rep. Barry Moore of Enterprise, who now represents the 1st District, defeated former Navy SEAL Jared Hudson and Attorney General Steve Marshall in the primary. Democrat Everett Wess, a Birmingham attorney, emerged from a field that included Dakarai Larriett and Kyle Sweetser.
1st Congressional District: Carl vs. Jones
Republican Jerry Carl represented the 1st District from 2021 to 2025, when it included Mobile, Baldwin and most of southwest Alabama. A court-ordered map in 2023 shifted his district east into the Wiregrass, and he lost the next Republican primary to Moore. The district was redrawn again this summer to include Mobile, Baldwin, Escambia and Covington counties, opening a path for Carl to reclaim the seat.
Carl, endorsed by Trump, won his primary by more than 17,000 votes over Austin Sidwell, John Mills and Lucas Burger. He has said “affordability, without a doubt” is the top issue for voters and has pledged to bring down fuel, utility and food costs by recruiting higher-wage employers to South Alabama. His campaign website says he will “support President Trump and his America First agenda,” back a wall on the southern border, keep “critical race theory and woke ideology” out of public schools and “restore fiscal sanity and bring down inflation.”
Democrat Clyde Jones is a Daphne minister and U.S. Army veteran who previously served as board president of Alabama Arise. He entered the race in October 2025, saying he was “troubled by the direction of our country and the continued divisive rhetoric coming out of Washington, D.C.” His platform includes expanding Medicaid, giving communities more say over data center projects and immigration reform, and his website says he is “committed to serving people over corporate political action committees, congressional reform and health care for all.”
“People across this district want change and are eager for it,” Jones said in a statement. “I am committed to being a representative who fights for you whether you voted for me or not.”
Federal Election Commission reports show Carl raised $1.4 million and spent $1.1 million from January 2025 through September 2026, including more than $180,000 transferred from the Jerry Carl Victory Committee. Jones raised more than $183,000 and spent about $163,000 from July 2025 through September 2026.
Other statewide offices
- Attorney general: Republican Katherine Robertson, chief counsel to term-limited Attorney General Steve Marshall since 2017 and a former aide to U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, faces Democrat Jeff McLaughlin, a Guntersville attorney who represented Marshall County in the House from 2001 to 2010. Robertson beat former Justice Jay Mitchell in the June runoff and is campaigning on Trump’s agenda, law enforcement and defending state abortion laws. McLaughlin, unopposed in his primary, is focused on public corruption and protecting utility customers from high electricity rates.
- Secretary of state: Republican Caroleene Dobson, a Montgomery attorney who ran against U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures in 2024, faces Democrat Wayne Rogers, a former federal prosecutor from Birmingham.
- Treasurer: Republican incumbent Young Boozer, a former banking executive first elected in 2010 and reappointed by Ivey in 2021, faces Democrat Rosilyn Houston, a former BBVA USA senior executive with more than 30 years in banking.
- Auditor: Republican incumbent Andrew Sorrell, a former legislator, faces Democrat Violet Edwards, a Madison County commissioner and former TV news reporter.
- Agriculture and industries commissioner: Republican Corey Hill, mayor of Douglas in Marshall County, faces Democrat Ron Sparks, who held the office from 2003 to 2011. Hill wants to ease farm regulations, promote Alabama-grown products and revive a rural crime initiative targeting agricultural theft. Sparks proposes tougher food safety and fuel pump inspections, ending the 1.5 percent sales tax on farm equipment and helping farmers buy equipment.
- Public Service Commission: In Place 1, Republican Matt Gentry, a former Cullman County sheriff who beat incumbent Jeremy Oden in the primary, faces Democrat James Gordon, a former state representative for House District 98, which covers Prichard, Saraland, Satsuma and Creola. In Place 2, Republican Jim Zeigler, a former commissioner and state auditor who defeated incumbent Chris Beeker, faces Democrat Sheila McNeil, who has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the commission’s expansion from three to seven members.
- Alabama Supreme Court: Place 8 Justice Greg Shaw, a Republican, faces Democrat Ashleigh Meyer Dunham. Place 7 Justice Brad Mendheim, a Republican, is unopposed.
Legislative races in Mobile and Baldwin
House District 101 (Spring Hill, Huntleigh Woods, Big Creek Lake): Republican Chris Pringle, the House speaker pro tempore, faces Democrat Joan Friedlander. Pringle served from 1994 to 2002 and returned in 2014; he says protecting the city of Mobile, the University of South Alabama and the Port of Mobile has been his goal. Friedlander supports affordable health care, curbing school-choice vouchers and more money for public schools.
House District 99 (Crichton, north Mobile, Semmes): Democrat Sam Jones, Mobile’s first Black mayor from 2005 to 2013, seeks a third House term against Republican Charlie Watts of Semmes. Jones, who beat Jyl Hughes and Levi Wright Jr. in the primary, lists lowering living costs and health care affordability as priorities. Watts supports ending the grocery tax and promoting school choice.
Senate District 22 (parts of Baldwin, Escambia, Mobile and Washington counties): Republican Terry Waters, a Robertsdale farmer and Army veteran who defeated longtime Sen. Greg Albritton in the primary, faces Democrat Ashley Sharpe of Loxley. Waters supports veterans’ mental health care and helping legal immigrants find work and opposes expanding gambling. Sharpe supports Medicaid expansion, a lottery and changes to public school sex education, and says the district has been taken for granted amid rapid development.
House District 65 (parts of Mobile and Baldwin): Republican John Knapp of Saraland, a Clarke County Sheriff’s Office officer, faces independent Elaine Beech of Chatom, a former chair of the Statewide Health Coordinating Council who is focused on local and health care issues. The current representative, Brett Easterbrook, was arrested in early October in a prostitution and human trafficking sting in Atmore and faces solicitation charges; he is awaiting trial and is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
House District 96 (Daphne area): Republican Danielle Duggar, who defeated Rep. Matt Simpson in the May primary, faces Democrat Terri Osborne of Daphne. Duggar has pledged to follow Tuberville’s agenda and opposes vaccine mandates and COVID-era restrictions; Osborne is focused on health care access and public education.
Senate District 32 (south Baldwin): Republican Sen. Chris Elliott of Josephine, in office since 2018, faces Democrat Janet Appleby of Gulf Shores. Elliott has championed requiring beneficial use of dredge material from Mobile Bay; Appleby is campaigning on health care, education and affordability.
Mobile County sheriff and school board
Republican Sheriff Paul Burch, elected in 2022 after Sam Cochran retired, faces Democrat Pamela J. Laffitte, a former Mobile County Sheriff’s Office corrections sergeant. Laffitte supports expanded body cameras, more deputies in schools and restoring concealed-carry permit requirements.
On the Mobile County Board of School Commissioners, District 3 incumbent Democrat Reginald Crenshaw, who wants a new gym at Vigor High School and better school letter grades, faces independent Meika Gordon Gardner, who wants to address teacher turnover, security and student mental health. In District 4, incumbent Democrat Sherry McDade, in office since 2020, faces Republican Michael Fasano, a retired Navy veteran who wants closer review of spending and more transparency. Commissioners serve six-year terms.
In Baldwin County, all county races were settled in the May 19 primary or are uncontested after Democrats withdrew from two county commission races.
Amendments and Mobile County questions
- Amendment 1 would let voters elect a replacement to finish the term when the lieutenant governor’s office becomes vacant more than 60 days before the next general election for state officers, let the Legislature set pay for the lieutenant governor and legislative officers by joint resolution and require approval for legislative travel paid with legislative funds.
- Amendment 2 would create a process for neighboring county school systems to merge after a State Board of Education study, with a public vote in each county if enough voters protest.
- Amendment 3 would require school boards to adopt policies for a daily Pledge of Allegiance and for student-initiated, student-led prayer, with students free to opt out.
- Amendment 4 would require public K-12 schools to broadcast or perform the first stanza of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at least once a week.
Ballot statements say none of the four carries a cost or tax.
Mobile County voters will also see Local Amendment 1, sponsored by Reps. Mark Shirey, Chip Brown, Shane Stringer and Margie Wilcox, which would let homeowners 65 and older who have lived in their home for five years freeze its assessed value when applying for the senior exemption. Millage changes and later additions would still apply. Freezes could begin Oct. 1, 2027, based on values as of Oct. 1, 2026.
The county’s Pay-As-You-Go referendum would continue the long-running road, bridge and drainage program by authorizing up to $82 million in bonds and continuing the 6.5-mill property tax that repays them: $40 million countywide and $14 million for each of the three commission districts. The program must be renewed every two years, and the county commission publishes the full project list.
