MONTGOMERY—A key congressional primary is set to take place this week in Alabama’s Second Congressional District, following a GOP redistricting effort to pick up an extra seat in the House of Representatives.
The state shifted its congressional district lines to give Republicans an advantage in District 2, hoping to take the seat from the Democratic incumbent.
That caused some candidates who previously lost races in District 1 to hop into the District 2 race, along with a few others who are hoping for a shot at winning a Congressional seat in November. It’s now a six-way race. Primaries in the newly drawn districts 1, 6, and 7 will also be held on Tuesday; results from an earlier primary in May have been voided.
One candidate, endorsed by President Donald Trump, appears favored to win on Tuesday. Meanwhile, shifting demographics, low voter turnout, and a bit of strategic interference by Democrats could add uncertainties to the outcome.
Redrawn Districts
Following a series of court battles, Alabama redrew its congressional map, hoping to grab a 6–1 GOP majority in the state. The move seemed like a sure thing: The new lines supposedly gave Republicans a seven-point advantage in District 2, clearing the way to oust Democratic incumbent Shomari Figures.
Figures took the seat in 2024 after a U.S. Supreme Court decision forced the state to redraw its congressional map, adding a second mostly minority district. With one other exception, the GOP has held District 2 since 1965.
A more recent decision by the Supreme Court found that states are not allowed to form districts primarily based on racial considerations. That allowed Alabama to cut the mostly African-American city of Mobile out of District 2, theoretically weakening the Democrats’ influence since minority voters tend to lean blue.
A Crowded Primary Race
Of the six candidates sparring for District 2, Hampton Harris was the only one who intended to challenge Figures before the redistricting decision came down.
State Rep. Rhett Marques, former Green Beret Joshua McKee, and Marine vet James Richardson jumped in after losing their primaries in District 1 earlier this year. Tech specialist Chris Horn joined after losing a run for state secretary.
Former U.S. Department of Agriculture official David Matthews also came in after the redistricting.
Trump-backed Marques appears to be the frontrunner. He has garnered endorsements from Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), and Majority Leader Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.).
At $1.1 million, he has spent nearly double the amount of the other candidates combined. The Alabama Christian Conservatives super PAC also pumped $1.5 million into Marques’s campaign. One poll in June had him at 30 points, with Joshua McKee at 10, and the others trailing further behind.
The other candidates told The Epoch Times those numbers can’t be trusted, largely because many Alabamians are unaware that the special election is happening. Forty-two percent of the voters in that poll were undecided.
That sentiment was backed up by residents of Montgomery—many told The Epoch Times they had no idea about Tuesday’s election.
Horn is chairman of Alabama’s Tennessee Valley Republican Club and conducts GOP outreach for the state; he said he expects turnout on Tuesday to be around one percent.
Democrats’ Strategy
The situation became even more complex last month when Tabitha Isner, former Vice Chair of Alabama’s Democratic Party, urged Democratic voters to jump into Republican primaries across the state.
Alabama has an open primary system, and Figures is already the Democratic nominee. That means Democratic voters will be free to use their vote to skew the GOP results next Tuesday.
“These are the folks we want to knock off the Republican ticket,” Isner said in a July 21 Facebook post, mentioning Rhett Marques in District 2, Jerry Carl in District 1, and Ammie Akin in District 7.
Isner hasn’t publicly said which candidate Democrats should vote for, but the plan is to endorse a candidate Figures can defeat in November.
Meanwhile, the Alabama state legislature is trying to end crossover voting in primaries by reintroducing legislation requiring party registration to vote in a primary election. Even if passed, that wouldn’t kick in until 2027.
The Cook’s Political Report shifted the district from “solid” Republican to “likely.” The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee lists Figures as one of its “frontline” incumbents, candidates whose seats are in play during the upcoming midterms.
Politics Are Taboo, and Demographics Are Shifting
As a rule, residents in Montgomery, the state’s capital, were friendly. But many became visibly uncomfortable when asked to talk politics. It’s a feature of the South, where people told The Epoch Times they were raised to believe their vote was a private matter.
Also, such conversations can get “heated” easily, a few residents said.
While no one was willing to be formally interviewed, a few were willing to discuss which issues were top of mind.
Meanwhile, Horn told The Epoch Times he’s “the only one who can win” against Figures in November.
He thinks the GOP may have miscalculated because its map doesn’t account for an influx of minority voters into Montgomery County, and the district is still vulnerable.
“It has more party ticket-splitters. It’s more moderate, and certainly [Democrats] can galvanize their votes through churches and through organizations, and they’re very, very proficient at it,” he said.
He also said the winning candidate needs to make inroads with the black community.
“If you’re not able to go into the black churches, if you’re not able to go into the black colleges, if you’re not able to go into that area, you can’t win Montgomery County,” he said. “Being a far right, Trump-endorsed candidate, you can’t win.”
Cost of Living and Rural Infrastructure
While some Montgomery residents expressed a feeling of hopelessness, saying rising prices and a lack of good jobs made it seem like the American Dream was out of reach, Harris, a 29-year-old Montgomery native who owns his own real estate brokerage and legal firm, told The Epoch Times he wants to avoid adding any “regressive” new taxes, which he says lead to economic decline.
“I think that we are taxed enough,” he said. He also wants to focus on cutting gas prices by deregulating diesel production.
Outside of Montgomery, the district is largely rural, and a few of the candidates said they wanted to focus on building or repairing infrastructure in those areas.
Matthews, former director of state operations for Rural Development in the Agriculture Department, told The Epoch Times that, if he wins, he wants to leverage his vast experience to those problems—especially water systems.
Some of the country’s underground pipes were laid as many as 60 years ago, he said, resulting in leaks that cause low efficiency and higher water prices. That has ripple effects on small-town economies, Matthews said.
“You can’t build housing if you don’t have water infrastructure. And then, if you want to bring in industries like food processing and a lot of manufacturing processing facilities, you need appropriate water infrastructure to supply the operations of those industries.”
Taking Care of Veterans
All the candidates said they wanted to highlight care of military veterans, if elected. Richardson and McKee are vets, and Harris’s wife is currently serving.
McKee, a former Green Beret and current businessman, said he wants to address a lack of rural healthcare options in his state, and initiate a pilot program that will give veterans more flexibility in choosing healthcare providers.
He also intends to work for free, putting his congressional salary into a nonprofit fund.
“The whole purpose of what I’m doing is to be a representative for the people, for them, not for myself, not for any self gratification or position or a title,” McKee told The Epoch Times. “I don’t care about any of that. This is about the people for me. I will give up everything to serve and do it the right way.”
Richardson described himself as “untethered” by outside political or monetary influence. He said he wouldn’t be focused on pushing legislation if he goes to Washington, but wants to focus on local issues, also citing infrastructure and veterans’ rights.
“All too often individuals go up there and get lost in the noise, and forget who they truly serve,” he said in an emailed statement.
“As a Marine veteran I follow that motto of Semper Fidelis ‘Always Faithful’, and that’s what I shall always be to the people of Alabama.”
