MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama will get a rematch between two high-profile nominees for governor while candidates of both major parties will head to runoff elections next month for an open U.S. Senate seat.
Republican U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville and former U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, a Democrat, easily won their respective primaries for governor on Tuesday, setting up their second head-to-head contest after Tuberville unseated Jones six years ago.
Jones was elected to the U.S. Senate in a special election in 2017 but his time in office was short-lived in the heavily Republican state. He is hoping voters' frustrations with their Republican-dominated government, including on issues like healthcare and the rising cost of living, will propel him to another rare Democratic victory in the Deep South.
"Change means rising wages, including raising the minimum wage," Jones said. "Change means expanding Medicaid to make healthcare affordable. Change means better jobs."
Tuberville's decision to enter the governor's race ignited a fierce battle among Republicans for an open Senate seat that is all but certain to stay red.
READ MORE: Sen. Tommy Tuberville wins Republican nomination for Alabama governor
The runoff for the U.S. Senate slot for Republican and Democratic nominees will be held June 16. Congressional maps may soon change, based on the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision that severely weakened the Voting Rights Act. That opens the possibility of new primaries in August under a redrawn map, which has confused many voters.
The November governor's race will feature a rematch between Tuberville and Jones, who is seeking a political comeback.
Tuberville, a former college football coach, said he is often asked about running against Jones for a second time, but he framed the race as one of competing ideologies.
"I'm not running against him. I'm really not. I'm running against socialism and communism," Tuberville said. "I'm running against an ideology that is so bad, that is so far left, that has nothing to do with the last 250 years, that this country has been great."
Jones said his campaign is about the belief that the state doesn't have to accept the way things have been with current leadership.
"For too long, folks in Montgomery have worked only for themselves and the powerful people who put them there," Jones said.
Tuberville defeated Jones in 2020 after Tuberville was endorsed by President Donald Trump, who also has backed his bid for governor.
Jones, the last Democrat to win statewide election in Alabama, became a national figure after his unlikely 2017 win.
During the primary, opponent Ken McFeeters accused Tuberville of not meeting the legal requirement to have lived in the state for seven years. Tuberville maintains he met the residency requirement, and the Alabama Republican Party dismissed McFeeters' challenge.
U.S. Rep. Barry Moore advanced to a runoff for the Republican nomination. He is a three-term congressman and member of the House's conservative Freedom Caucus who has said Alabama deserves a "Trump conservative" in the Senate.
"We're going to win this thing, and God's going to bless this great nation," Moore told supporters Tuesday night.
Trump endorsed Moore in the race giving him a boost in the crowded GOP field. During a brief telephone rally Monday night, Trump said, "Barry is going to do a fantastic job. He will fight for you in the Senate."
Moore, who owns an industrial waste hauling business, said through the campaign that he would be the man to "take out the trash" in Washington.
"God's going to send a garbage man to the United States Senate," Moore said Tuesday.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall and former Navy SEAL Jared Hudson were in a tight race for the other runoff slot, which was too early to call.
Marshall has stressed his record, including his work with other Republican-led states in filing court actions that challenged former President Joe Biden's policies and supported Trump.
On the Democratic side, business owner Dakarai Larriett and lawyer Everett Wess are heading to a runoff, but either of them would face an uphill climb in deep-red Alabama.
Alabama voters cast ballots Tuesday, but a redistricting fight has confused many.
Residents in all seven congressional districts voted, but the state currently plans to void the results in four districts and hold new primaries in August under a different map.
READ MORE: Supreme Court halts order on Alabama's U.S. House map, giving GOP an opening to gain seat
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has scheduled special primary elections on Aug. 11 for the 1st, 2nd, 6th and 7th Congressional Districts. The change comes after the state got permission to switch to a different congressional map that could help Republicans pick up a House seat in November.
Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen said the Tuesday votes will be tabulated in the four affected Alabama congressional districts but will be "void for the purposes of determining the party nominees." The Aug. 11 primary will determine those nominees in winner-take-all races without a runoff, he said.
The biggest change occurs to the 2nd Congressional District now represented by Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures. The district now stretches from Mobile through Montgomery to the Georgia border.
However, the district lines remain the subject of litigation. The NAACP Legal Defense Find and other groups are seeking to stop the use of the new map. If they are successful, the winner of the Tuesday primary will determine the party nominees.
But if they're not and the new map goes forward, the Aug. 11 special primary will decide which nominees will appear on ballots in November.
Anthony Lee, 80, said he was upset about the state's effort to switch congressional maps but was unsure where the dispute stood.
"I'm totally against them changing maps," Lee said while walking up to his 2nd Congressional District polling place in Tuskegee. "It's diluting the Black vote."
Former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Jay Mitchell and Katherine Robertson, the chief counsel for Attorney General Steve Marshall, have advanced to a runoff for the Republican nomination for attorney general.
The winner of the Republican primary will face Jeff McLaughlin, a former state legislator who ran unopposed in the Democratic primary.
An outside group funded an advertisement critical of Mitchell for writing the main court opinion that led to in vitro fertilization clinics in the state temporarily shutting down. The ruling said frozen embryos could be considered "unborn children" and that couples could pursue wrongful death claims after their embryos were destroyed in a hospital accident.
The 2024 decision relied on an Alabama law from 1872. Mitchell said he supports IVF and that the ad is distorting the facts of the case.
-- Kim Chandler, Associated Press
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