The Alabama Democratic Party is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in the state of Alabama. It is chaired by Randy Kelley.
The Alabama Democratic Party was once one of the most successful political organizations in the United States. Even after the major party realignment in the height the Civil Rights movement and the Republican Party's introduction of the Southern strategy, Democrats continued winning state and local races in Alabama. This was also unaffected by presidential elections; federally, Alabama has not voted for a Democrat for president since Jimmy Carter was the nominee in 1976. Republicans remained associated with the North, big business, and opportunism. Despite H. Guy Hunt having become the first Republican governor since reconstruction in 1986, Democrats had retained most statewide control. The tide only began to change in the 2000s, after Democrat Don Siegelman narrowly lost the 2002 Alabama gubernatorial election. The Democrats did not lose control of the Alabama legislature until 2010, when the Alabama Republican Party gained a majority in both houses for the first time in 150 years. Alabama lawmaker Roger Bedford, Jr. attributed this to a “Red Obama backlash tsunami”, and the growing influence of George W. Bush's Republican Party in the South after the September 11 attacks.
Alabama is now one of the reddest states in the country, a striking departure from its relatively-recent status as a Democratic stronghold. In Congress, Democrats hold one out of Alabama's seven seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. In the state legislature, they remain the minority party. Democrats are also the minority party in statewide offices. Extensive gerrymandering by Republicans has essentially prevented Democrats being re-elected in considerable numbers for the foreseeable future.
Current elected officials
Members of Congress
U.S. House of Representatives
Out of the 7 seats Alabama is apportioned in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1 is held by a Democrat:
Statewide offices
None
Since 2002, Alabama has only elected one Democrat to statewide office; Doug Jones was elected to the state’s Class 2 U.S. Senate seat in a highly-publicized 2017 special election, in which he narrowly defeated scandal-plagued former state Chief Justice Roy Moore. Jones sought re-election to a full term three years later but lost in a landslide.
Lucy Baxley and Nancy Worley are the most recent Democrats elected to statewide office for full terms, winning the offices of Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of State, respectively, in 2002. In 2006, Baxley lost her bid for Governor to Republican incumbent Bob Riley while Worley lost her bid for a second term to Republican challenger Beth Chapman.
State Legislature
Senate
Current senators
Senate Minority Leader: Bobby Singleton (SD24) Senate Deputy Minority Leader: Billy Beasley (SD28) Senate Minority Caucus Chair: Linda Coleman-Madison (SD20) House Current representatives House Minority Leader: Anthony Daniels (HD53) House Assistant Minority Leader: Merika Coleman (HD57) House Minority Caucus Chair: Christopher J. England (HD70)
Municipal
The following Democrats hold prominent mayoralties in Alabama:
Montgomery: Steven Reed
Birmingham: Randall Woodfin
Tuscaloosa: Walt Maddox
History of the party
Creation and antebellum period
Created during the 1830s under the leadership of conservative figures such as William Rufus King, John Gayle and William Lowndes Yancey, the local Democratic Party took to represent the farmers and the merchants living in Northern Alabama, advocating individual rights and opposing growing centralisation, against the Whigs who represented the urban populations, the Black Belt planters and their businesses allies and who advocated a more active government in the domain of internal improvements.
In Alabama, until the Civil War, the main question were the National Bank, the tariffs and the distribution of the former Indian lands, with the preservation of slavery growing more and more in importance.
The Democratic candidates always won the gubernatorial and presidential elections in this state, except in 1845 when a dissident was elected governor and in 1860 when John Breckinridge won the state for the Southern Democrats.