The district is represented by RepublicanBarry Moore, a former Alabama state representative, who replaced Martha Roby, the retired Republican incumbent, in the 2020 election.
The 2nd is scheduled to be completely overhauled in advance of the 2024 elections, in consequence of the United States Supreme Court's decision in Allen v. Milligan, which ordered Alabama to create a second black opportunity district. Following this, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama appointed a special master to create new maps for the state, which resulted in the 2nd joining the 7th as the state's two opportunity districts.[4] Under its future configuration, this district would have been one of 19 districts that voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election had they existed in such configurations while being won or held by a Republican in 2022. However, with Moore's home county of Coffee being drawn out of this district and into the 1st, and him deciding to run in that district, the district has been left with no incumbent.[5]
White voters here were among the first in Alabama to shift from the Democratic Party; the old-line Southern Democrats in this area began splitting their tickets as early as the 1950s. Southeast Alabama is one of the most Republican districts in both Alabama and the nation. It has only supported a Democrat for president once since 1956, when Jimmy Carter carried it in 1976. In 2008, the district elected a Democrat to Congress for the first time since 1964, but it reverted to its Republican ways in 2010. At the state and local level, however, conservative Democrats continued to hold most offices as late as 2002.
White voters gave John McCain, the Republican candidate, 63.42% of the vote in 2008; Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate, received 36.05%, attracting voters beyond the substantial (and expected) African-American minority.
The district gives its congressmen very long tenures in Washington; only six people have represented it from 1923 to 2021, with five of six holding it for at least 10 years and four of six holding it for at least 15 years. Barry Moore, elected in 2021, represented the district when it was redrawn in 2023, to which he would continue his Congressional career in the neighboring 1st district.[6]
The new 2nd district takes the heavier African American communities of Butler, Macon, Monroe, Pike, and Russell counties as well as the capital Montgomery, Alabama. The district is expected to elect a Democratic representative to Congress in the 2024 elections.[7]
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