Alabama voters head to the polls Tuesday to decide all 140 seats in the state Legislature, but only a small fraction of those races feature real competition between the two major parties. Statewide, just 25 of the 105 House seats and eight of the 35 Senate seats have both a Republican and a Democrat on the ballot, leaving the outcome of most legislative contests already decided before a single vote is cast.
One of the closest-watched races on the coast is Baldwin County’s Senate District 33, where longtime Democratic incumbent Vivian Figures faces a challenge from Republican Pete Riehm. The district was redrawn during this year’s reapportionment process, and the changes could make what has long been a reliably Democratic seat far less certain heading into Tuesday.
“During reapportionment, they sent some of those Republicans into her Democratic district, which has made her district a possible swing district,” said longtime Alabama political analyst Steve Flowers, who has tracked the state’s legislative races for decades.
Figures has represented parts of the Mobile and Baldwin county area in the Alabama Senate for years, building a base of support in a district that has traditionally leaned Democratic. Riehm, making his bid for the seat as a Republican, is hoping the new lines drawn during redistricting, which pulled additional Republican-leaning precincts into the district, give him an opening in a part of the state that has grown more competitive in recent election cycles.
Baldwin County’s race is not the only one drawing attention this fall. In the Huntsville area, Republican Phillip Rigsby and Democrat Mallory Hagan are competing for House District 25 in Madison County, a seat being vacated by outgoing House Speaker Mac McCutcheon. Nearby, Senate District 2, covering Limestone and Lauderdale counties, pits Republican incumbent Tom Butler against Democratic challenger Kim Lewis in another race reshaped by redistricting.
“What’s happened in Huntsville, it’s really a microcosm of the entire country. You have folks from Pennsylvania, Michigan, California living there that are used to voting Democratic,” Flowers said, pointing to the region’s rapid population growth as a factor reshaping its political makeup.
In Montgomery County, House District 74 features Republican incumbent Charlotte Meadows against Democrat Phillip Ensler, another contest Flowers says has been made less predictable by new district boundaries drawn earlier this year.
Despite the attention on a handful of competitive districts, the vast majority of Alabama’s state legislative races will be decided without a general election fight at all. A majority of House districts, 55 of 105, and more than half of Senate districts, 18 of 35, have only one candidate on the ballot, meaning the outcome was effectively settled during the spring primaries or by qualifying deadlines.
Alabama State University history and political science professor Howard Robinson said the lack of competition in most districts is largely a product of how legislative maps are drawn.
“Part of our politics and part of our electoral landscape is driven by the way these districts have been created,” Robinson said.
Robinson noted that even in districts without a contested legislative race, voters still have plenty of reason to turn out, since local offices on the same ballot carry significant weight for day-to-day life in their communities.
“This is a time of year you have an opportunity to make your voice heard as to who’s going to make these types of decisions in the best interest of not only your community but the larger community,” Robinson said, citing education, police protection and roadwork as examples of issues shaped by local elected officials.
Whoever wins Tuesday’s races, including the outcome in Baldwin County’s Senate District 33, will travel to Montgomery when the Legislature convenes for its next regular session in March 2023.