2020 election

It’s Election Day

Voting is steady in Jefferson County this evening as polls prepare to close at 7 p.m. County Board of Registrars Chairman Barry Stephenson said he expected the county to hit the 30% voter turnout projected by the secretary of state. Grace Newcombe, Alabama Secretary of State’s Office spokeswoman, also said polls seemed to have run smoothly and consistently across the state today. At the top of the ballot are races for president and the U.S. Senate. But other races also are on the ballot, including races for the state Supreme Court and appellate courts, Public Service Commission and a host of county races. Also at stake is the future of the Alabama Board of Education, as voters decide whether that group should remain an elected board or become a politically appointed commission via Amendment 1. Read more.

by Virginia Martin

In the Weeds: A Career of Fighting Has Led Byrne to Senate Showdown

MONTGOMERY -- Bradley Byrne is a fighter. That’s what Alabama’s 1st District Congressman says differentiates him from the field of other candidates in the race for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, and there’s plenty of evidence that his previous experience backs that up. Over a political career that has taken him from the state school board and the state Senate to the Alabama Community College System chancellor’s office and the U.S. House of Representatives, Byrne’s fights have been famous. Perhaps the most successful was Byrne’s bout with the state’s two-year college system, which had been mired in a patronage scandal until he, a reform-minded governor and federal prosecutors came in to clean it up. Perhaps the least successful was a run for governor in 2010 that saw him on a quixotic quest to take on the then-all-powerful state teachers’ association, only for that group to marshal untold resources to defeat him in the end. Now Byrne finds himself in the middle of another high-profile fight as he seeks to win a U.S. Senate seat by first outmatching two better-known Republican rivals in former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville. The winner of the Republican primary — or runoff, if needed — will face incumbent Democratic Sen. Doug Jones in November. Read more.

by Todd Stacy, Alabama Daily News

In the Weeds: Sessions Campaigns as the Consistent Conservative He’s Always Been

RATTVILLE — Jeff Sessions hasn’t changed. That’s his message to voters as he campaigns to be elected back to the Senate seat he held for 20 years before leaving it to become attorney general of the United States. He wants Republicans in Alabama to remember the rock-ribbed conservative who often irritated his party’s leadership by pushing his unique brand of conservatism that heavily influenced today’s Trump agenda. But as he exits the passenger door of a black SUV and strides by himself into the Courtyard Marriott hotel, it’s clear that a lot has changed for Sessions. Read more.

by Todd Stacy, Alabama Daily News

In the Weeds: Tuberville Disrupts Senate Race as ‘Outsider’

MONTGOMERY — Tommy Tuberville does not care about your need for nuance. In a political landscape where tricky issues can sometimes cause politicians to split hairs on policy, the former football coach and current candidate for U.S. Senate has found a winning formula: be blunt, keep it simple and always pivot back to President Donald Trump. Read more.

by Todd Stacy, Alabama Daily News

Leading Business Operations Back Board of Education Amendment, Conservative Republican Groups Urge a No Vote

Some of Alabama’s leading business groups and corporations have put up almost a half million dollars to support a state constitutional amendment on Tuesday's ballot that would replace the elected state Board of Education with a commission appointed by the governor. A political action committee called Yes for the Best Education Committee has raised $471,000 in support of the proposed amendment. The PAC was registered with the Alabama Secretary of State’s Office on Feb. 13. Jimmy Parnell, president of ALFA, the Alabama Farmers Federation, is listed as chairman and treasurer. There apparently is no organization raising money for an effort to defeat the amendment, but the executive committee of the Alabama Republican Party and Eagle Forum of Alabama, a group that espouses conservative causes, have called for its defeat. Read more.

by Glenn Stephens

Don’t Go to the Polls Without BW’s 2020 Primary Voter Guide — Mobile

In BirminghamWatch’s 2020 Primary Voter Guide, you’ll find: A story on what candidates in the U.S. Senate race have to say about issues important to voters and why the Senate race is driving debate about the election. A story about the candidates’ positions on issues in the Republican primary for president, and in the Democratic primary for president. A story about the statewide amendment on the ballot, which would move the state Board of Education from an elected board to an appointed one. Profiles of candidates on the ballot, including basic information about each of the candidates along with the top contributors to their campaigns, the main issues they’re citing in their campaigns and links to their web or social media sites. A list of those links will be updated this evening. Printable sample ballots you can use to mark your own choices for each race. And a Voter’s Toolbox of information about voting, including which districts will be on your ballot and how to find your polling place. It’s all in one package on the BirminghamWatch 2020 Primary Voter Guide.

by BirminghamWatch

Don’t Go to the Polls Without the 2020 Primary Voter Guide

In BirminghamWatch’s 2020 Primary Voter Guide, you’ll find: A story on what candidates in the U.S. Senate race have to say about issues important to voters and why the Senate race is driving debate about the election. A story about the candidates’ positions on issues in the Republican primary for president, and in the Democratic primary for president. A story about the statewide amendment on the ballot, which would move the state Board of Education from an elected board to an appointed one. Profiles of candidates on the ballot, including basic information about each of the candidates along with the top contributors to their campaigns, the main issues they’re citing in their campaigns and links to their web or social media sites. A list of those links will be updated this evening. Printable sample ballots you can use to mark your own choices for each race. And a Voter’s Toolbox of information about voting, including which districts will be on your ballot and how to find your polling place. It’s all in one package on the BirminghamWatch 2020 Primary Voter Guide.

by BirminghamWatch

Will Smith

Republican candidate for Alabama Criminal Court of Appeals Place 2

by Solomon Crenshaw

Greg Shaw, 2020 general election

Candidate for Alabama Supreme Court, Associate Justice

by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

Mary Becker Windom, 2020 general election

Alabama Criminal Court of Appeals Place 1

by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.