The Alabama Democratic Party can’t afford to write off 2026

  Tommy Tuberville, our reputed gubernatorial inevitability, should not have a clear path to the governor’s mansion.

  His Senate career is almost all cable news hits, conspiracy thinking, and attacks on transgender youth. His platform is the same reward-the-wealthy, punish-the-marginalized, Trump-is-all pitch we’ve heard from state Republicans for a decade.

  Call me naive, but Alabama needs something more than this. We deserve officials whose priorities are public matters and not the private goals of the state’s many wealthy cliques. A gubernatorial campaign that could be waged in its entirety from a beach house won’t provide any of that.

Start recruiting those 2026 candidates, Alabama Democrats

  This is the existential problem for the Alabama Democratic Party: their voters aren’t showing up.

  And it’s not an issue because we’re on the brink of some political revolution in the state. Alabama is not about to tip blue. The Republican supermajority in the legislature is not on the brink of collapse.

  No, we’re talking about threats to the few sandbars of power Democrats still occupy.

The biggest challenge for Alabama Democrats? Alabama demographics

  If you’re an Alabama Democrat, this has been a strange year.

  On the one hand, state party leaders are back to firing guns at their feet. The people currently helming the organization think a very small number of people should call the shots. And they don’t seem to want LGBTQ individuals, young people, Native Americans, Hispanics, or Asian and Pacific Islanders included in any meaningful way. So they moved to disband their caucuses.

  It’s foolish. A minority party needs all the allies it can find. But the current leadership doesn’t appear interested in expanding the party beyond its current base, much less mounting significant challenges to Republicans who dominate Alabama government. 

Craig Ford: My hope for the future of Alabama and the Democratic Party

  For the last six years, it has been my privilege to serve as Minority Leader in the Alabama House of Representatives. On Wednesday, I will step down and a new leader will be elected.

  While I will continue to serve in the legislature and represent the great people of Etowah County, I would like to share my outgoing thoughts on our state and the Democratic Party.

  One thing that seems to be clear after six years of the current supermajority is that their policies aren’t working for regular people in Alabama.

  Alabama’s unemployment rate continues to be well above the national average, and our public school system has lost millions of dollars to charter schools and the Accountability Act since the Republican supermajority took over in 2010.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Misbehavin’

  As the 2013 regular legislative session winds down, let us review some highlights.

  One of the highlights was a lowlight. It did not happen on the floor of the House but late at night at a Mobile legislator’s home while he was on his computer responding to emails. The email he responded to was a generic letter sent by a man in Jefferson County to all members of the legislature. It was not even intended specifically for Rep. Joseph Mitchell.

  Eddie Maxwell, a white, retired, Jefferson County coal miner sent a benign innocent letter to all members of the legislature urging all 140 members not to pass any laws that would restrict gun ownership. Maxwell sent his mass email to all state legislators at 10:54 p.m. on January 27. Rep. Joseph Mitchell responded from his Alabama House email account at 11:59 p.m. and boy did he respond.