Alabama Democratic Party
![]() | The article's lead section may need to be rewritten. (November 2022) |
Alabama Democratic Party | |
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Montgomery, AL 36104 | |
Youth wing | Alabama Young Democrats Alabama High School Democrats |
Ideology | Modern liberalism |
National affiliation | Democratic Party |
Colors | Blue |
Seats in the U.S. Senate | 0 / 2
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Seats in the U.S. House of Representatives | 1 / 7
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State Board of Education | 2 / 9
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Statewide Executive Offices | 0 / 7
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Supreme Court of Alabama | 0 / 9
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Seats in the Alabama Senate | 8 / 35
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Seats in the Alabama House of Representatives | 28 / 105
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Website | |
aldemocrats.org | |
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.[1][2] 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.[3] 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 136 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.[3]
Alabama is now considered a Republican stronghold,[4] a substantial 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. Democrats hold zero statewide offices in Alabama, and they're also the minority party in both of its state legislative chambers.
Current elected officials
Members of Congress
U.S. House of Representatives
Out of the seven seats Alabama is apportioned in the U.S. House of Representatives, one is held by a Democrat:
District | Member | Photo |
---|---|---|
7th | Terri Sewell | ![]() |
Statewide offices
- None
The last two times Democrats won statewide elections in Alabama was in 2008 when Lucy Baxley won 50.25% of the vote in the regularly scheduled election for President of the Alabama Public Service Commission, and in 2017 when Doug Jones, with 49.97% of the vote, won an upset victory in a U.S. Senate special election. Baxley lost re-election in 2012, as did Jones in his bid for a full term in 2020. Jones is the last Democrat to hold statewide office in Alabama, a title that Baxley had held until Jones’ swearing in.
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:
History of the party
Creation and antebellum period
Created during the 1830s under the leadership of conservative figures such as
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.
Civil War and Reconstruction
The Alabama Democratic Party guided by William Lowndes Yancey and others led Alabama to secede from the Union after Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860. The Civil War effectively ended slavery but still required a "Constitutional" emancipation of the former slaves by the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment which the Democrats did not support, and for the next century the Democratic party was segregationist. The bi-racial Republican Party dominated Alabama politics from about 1868 to 1876 with its uneasy coalition of blacks and whites. This period resulted in major changes in the politics of Alabama, caused by the recently freed slaves voting for the Republican Party and electing Republican officials.[5]
To counter this trend, the Democratic leadership appealed to the White supremacist sentiments and racial solidarity among the White population, and used fraud and violence by the hands of the Ku Klux Klan and other paramilitaries. This allowed them to win back the governorship in 1874 with George S. Houston.
With the Republican political collapse in the early 1870s, Democrats reasserted control over the state. While most Alabama campaigns had as their main issues taxation, the railroads, and government reform, racial politics were never very far below and oftentimes brazenly in the open. Occasionally, Democratic voters from the lower classes challenged the
As part of the "Solid South"
Adoption of The 1901 State Constitution was intended to permanently end any challenge to one-party Democratic rule and restore white supremacy in government. The Alabama Democratic party's leadership successfully disenfranchised most of the Black and poor Whites in the state, by implementation of a
Thereafter, in Alabama, until the 1960s, the main election was consequently the Democratic Party primary, since winning them was
In 1904, the Alabama Democratic Party adopted a logo featuring a
Since the end of Reconstruction, the Democratic presidential candidate always won the state although, in
Civil Rights Movement
The Great Migration of Blacks from the Deep South to states such as New York or Ohio, where they would exercise the franchise and where they were an electoral bloc, along with a switch of public opinion meant the National Democratic Party had to act against Jim Crow. However, all the Democratic controlled southern states resisted for years.
In 1948, after the inclusion of a civil rights plank in the national Democratic Party platform and President Truman's earlier decision to integrate the Armed Forces, several Southern delegates to the Democratic National Convention fought back. Almost half of Alabama's delegation walked out of the National Convention in protest. The delegates from Alabama along with others from surrounding states then regathered in Birmingham, Alabama and formed the
With the growing pressure from the national Democratic party against segregation, and the state party's continued support for "white supremacy" and the popularity of
During the United States presidential election of 1960, as a protest against the civil rights platforms of both national parties, the Alabama Democratic Party ran a slate of five Kennedy-committed Presidential Electors and six unpledged electors, who voted for segregationist U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia.
In 1964, Congress passed by large bi-partisan majorities, a very strong
Also, in 1964, Barry Goldwater was the first Republican to carry the state since Grant on 1872; Again, the Alabama Democratic Party denied its own President Lyndon B. Johnson ballot access under the Democratic party banner. Since Johnson was not even present on the ballots eleven unpledged electors ran on the Democratic ticket.[7][8]
Faced with growing numbers of new Black voters given the franchise thanks to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the state Democratic leadership tried to attract these new voters by measures such as forming the Alabama Democratic Conference and replacing the "White supremacy" with "Democrats" on their logo;[9][10] nevertheless, the party remained deeply divided on both racial politics and the inside battle between Loyalists, liberals or moderates "loyal" to the national Democratic party, and segregationists Regulars, and on the outside with the National Democratic Party of Alabama, a mainly Black and liberal party.[11][12]
In 1968, former Alabama Governor
After the 1970 Federal Census and Voting Rights legal challenges, the Alabama Legislature reapportioned itself for the first time in several decades. Part of the result was the creation of two black-majority House districts. These were the first minority-majority seats since black Republicans served in the legislature during Reconstruction (1868–1878). Democrats Thomas J. Reed and Fred Gray were elected as the first minority members in almost one hundred years.
The Wallace era
The personality and racial politics of Democratic governor
Earlier, in George Wallace's second term the three warring factions of the state Democratic party eventually reunited in the main party in 1972, and the regulars were returned to control of the delegation at the Democratic National Convention to which George Wallace spoke just weeks after he was gunned down by a would-be assassin.[13]
The Post-Wallace era
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/53/Montgomery_December_2018_68_%28Alabama_Democratic_Party_State_Headquarters%29.jpg/220px-Montgomery_December_2018_68_%28Alabama_Democratic_Party_State_Headquarters%29.jpg)
The final retirement of George Wallace in 1986 opened a bitter struggle for succeeding him between several major figures in the Democratic Party. It included Lt. Governor Bill Baxley then serving under Wallace fourth term. He had also served as attorney general under Wallace's second and third terms. He had been a politically nimble figure who was considered to be both a "new south" southern liberal (he prosecuted the Sixteenth Street Church Bomber) and, yet, was also considered to be a friend and loyalist to Wallace. He also enjoyed the support of organized labor. The other major candidate was then retiring Attorney General Charles Graddick who before being elected as a statewide-Democrat, had previously been in the Republican Party. He was considered to represent the more conservative and business oriented wing of the Democratic party.
The controversial decision from the party leadership to run Baxley was deemed undemocratic by the electorate, leading to the landslide election of
Since 1986, Democrats have lost more and more ground to the Republicans, finally, in 2010, losing control of the Alabama Legislature.
Nancy Worley era and 2018–2019 leadership dispute
In 2013, former Secretary of State Nancy Worley was elected chair of the ADP, formally stepping into the role after serving as Vice-Chair since 2007 and as interim Chair since
The DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee ruled in February 2019 that the ADP, within 90 days, should draw up new bylaws which comport to the DNC's standards for affirmative action and are more inclusive of Youth, LGBTQ, Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI), Latino and disabled Democrats. The RBC found fault with the ADP bylaws' stipulation that the Vice-Chair of Minority Affairs could select up to 30 at-large members to the SDEC; that the bylaws only provided for the SDEC membership to reflect the ethnic makeup of the Democratic voting base from the last general election, which almost entirely accommodated African-Americans; and that most of the at-large appointees were selected by Reed from the Alabama Democratic Conference, which Reed has chaired since 1979. The ADP did not respond to the RBC's ruling, and refused to respond to another 90-day extension of the ruling.
In August, DNC Chair Tom Perez issued a recommendation that the ADP's refusal to act should be met with the stripping of DNC voting credentials from Worley and Vice-Chair Randy Kelley, and that refusal to approve DNC-compliant bylaws and hold new officer elections under the new bylaws would jeopardize the DNC's acceptance of the ADP's 2020 delegate selection plan and, hence, any representation from Alabama delegates to the 2020 Democratic National Convention. Worley attended the DNC Summer Meeting in San Francisco to protest the recommendation, asserting that the DNC's recommendations for more diverse representation on the SDEC was an attack on the African-American Democratic base. On August 23, the RBC and then the full DNC voted unanimously to strip credentials from Worley and Kelley.
On September 23, the RBC approved new proposed ADP bylaws which were written by Reps. Anthony Daniels, Napoleon Bracy Jr. and Christopher J. England in their capacity as members of the Alabama House Democratic Caucus and the Alabama House Black Caucus.[14] The RBC ordered that the new bylaws should be passed by the SDEC within 10 days by October 5. Worley, in retaliation, called an SDEC meeting for October 12.
The October 5 meeting, which brought together 75 members of the SDEC, voted to approve the DNC-supported ADP bylaws, while over 80 other members who supported Worley and Kelley did not attend. Subsequently, the Worley-Kelley faction held an SDEC meeting on October 12 at which most of those who attended the October 5 meeting also attended to vote against Worley's proposed bylaws. The Worley-organized SDEC meeting overruled the October 5 meeting and bylaws, with Worley denying that she had received notice of a member-called meeting for October 5, and subsequently passed a non-DNC-approved draft of the bylaws which mostly consisted of the older text. However, the pro-DNC SDEC members vowed to hold their meeting on November 2 to elect new ADP leaders.
Worley filed a lawsuit against Daniels, Bracy and England on October 30 in Montgomery County Circuit Court to block the November 2 meeting from happening, with Judge Greg Griffin (D) issuing November 1 ruling to block the meeting. The block was immediately appealed to the all Republican
Following the 2018 legislative elections, there were only two white Democrats in the Alabama legislature, one in the State House of Representatives and one in the Alabama Senate. In the 2006–2010 term, more than 60 percent of legislators were Democrats, and most of the Democrats were white.[20]
2020s and continued influence of Joe L. Reed
In July 2022, England announced that he would not seek another term as chair of the Alabama Democratic Party.[21] Candidates to replace England included former congressional nominee Tabitha Isner,[22] Birmingham LGBTQ city liaison Josh Coleman,[23] and former U.S. Senate candidate Brandaun Dean.[24] Former U.S. representative Parker Griffith also expressed interest in the position, but said he would only compete for it if he was nominated by someone else.[25] Ultimately, it was former party Vice Chair Randy Kelley who won the chairmanship. Isner was elected as Senior Vice Chair. Kelley had been endorsed by Joe L. Reed.[26]
During an executive committee meeting in May 2023, the Alabama Democratic Party approved new bylaws that eliminated its youth, LGBTQ and disabled caucuses. All three of these caucuses are required for state Democratic parties by the Democratic National Committee. The powers of the affirmative action, Asian and Pacific Islander, and Native American caucuses were also greatly diminished. The move was described by Yellowhammer News and Alabama Reflector as a victory for Joe L. Reed and Randy Kelley. The disbandments were swiftly criticized by vice chair Tabitha Isner, as well as former U.S. Senator Doug Jones, the latter of whom described it as disenfranchisement for the affected groups. During the same meeting, nearly thirty committee members were forbidden from participating due to accusations of having not paid a $50 admission fee. Isner called the fee a poll tax. Reed charged that previous bylaws were "corrupt" and had taken power away from African-American voters.[27][28] In reaction, the Alabama Political Reporter published an opinion column by journalist Josh Moon claiming that the controversy "might have buried the ADP for good".[29] The chair of the Democratic National Committee, Jaime Harrison, tweeted that the situation was "troubling" and that it was being looked into.[30]
In June 2023, the Democratic National Committee confirmed that it would be formally reviewing a complaint regarding the removal of the Alabama Democratic Party's diversity caucuses. The complaint was referred to the national committee's Rules and Bylaws Committee.[31] When a follow-up meeting of the Alabama Democratic Party occurred on July 29, 2023, several party members protested the changes. In response, party leaders forbade recording devices from the meeting venue and removed several people from the premises, instead conducting the meeting in a private executive session. When Tabitha Isner disputed the removal of recording devices, noting that Alabama was a one-party consent state, Joe L. Reed reportedly shouted "You be quiet, girl" at her, according to the Alabama Reflector. Eddgra Fallin, a member of the state Democratic Executive Committee, later argued with protesters who had been removed from the meeting, saying that Black Democrats deserved more representation in the party, and that Hispanics "have not had to fight for anything". After the private executive session ended, Isner said that there had been an effort to remove her from the vice chair position, but the motion ultimately failed.[32]
In October 2023, the Democratic National Committee's Rules and Bylaws Committee ordered that the Alabama Democratic Party's 2023 bylaws must be invalidated, and a new set of bylaws must be drafted by November 2023 and voted on by February 2024.[33] The DNC found that chair Randy Kelley had not maintained a proper membership list for the State Democratic Executive Committee, and that prior notice had not been given for the $50 fee in May 2023.[34]
Emblems
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b1/Alabama_Democrats_logo_1904-1996.jpg/220px-Alabama_Democrats_logo_1904-1996.jpg)
In 1904 the Alabama Democratic Party chose, as the logo to put on its ballots, a rooster with the motto "White supremacy - For the right." Some objected to the rooster, such as segregationist Senator
The presence of "White Supremacy" on the Democratic logo and, as extension, on the ballots themselves, was used as a symbol of the Black disenfranchisement in the South[36] and was criticized by former Republican presidential candidate Thomas E. Dewey for its use by the Stevenson—Sparkman ticket in the 1952 United States presidential election in Alabama.[37][38]
In January 1966, over the objections of George Wallace and the Regulars, who feared the loss of White voters, the leadership decided, on a proposition from the Loyalists, helped by Charles W. McKay, the author of the "Nullification Declaration" against the Brown decision, who wanted to attract Black voters recently enfranchised by the Voting Rights Act of 1965, to replace "White supremacy" with "Democrats."[9][10]
Thirty years later, in 1996, the party finally dropped the
Chronology of leadership
Chronology of Chairs
- 1955–1966: Roy Mayhall
- 1966–1977: Bob Vance
- 1977–1980: George Lewis Bailes
- 1980–1984: Jimmy Knight
- 1984–1991: John Baker
- 1991–1992: Jack Hurley
- 1992–1996: Bill Blount
- 1996–1998: Joe Turnham
- 1998–2001: Jack Miller
- 2001–2005: Redding Pitt
- 2005–2011: Joe Turnham
- 2011–2013: Mark Kennedy
- 2013–2019: Nancy Worley
- 2019–2022: Christopher J. England
- 2022–present: Randy Kelley[40]
Vice-Chairs
- Pat Edington (1979–1991)
- Amy Burks (1991–2007)
- Nancy Worley (2007–2013)
- Redding Pitt (2013–2016)
- Randy Kelley (2016–2019)
- Patricia Todd (2019–2022)
- Tabitha Isner (2022–present)[40]
Chronology of Executive Directors
- 1971–1983: Louise Lindblom
- 1983–1997: Al LaPierre
- 1998–2000: Giles Perkins
- 2000-2000: Wade Perry
- 2000–2001: Phillip Kinney
- 2001–2003: Marsha Folsom
- 2003–2004: Mike Kanarick
- 2004–2011: Jim Spearman
- 2011–2013: Bradley Davidson
- 2019-2020: Ralph Young
- 2020–2022: Wade Perry
- 2023–present Tom Miro
Notes and references
- ^ Vox (website) - How the Republican Party went from Lincoln to Trump
- ^ Bowlin, Nick (2022-02-22). "Joke's on them: how Democrats gave up on rural America". the Guardian. Retrieved 2022-11-19.
- ^ a b Alabama used to be a Red State. How did it become so Blue? - Al.com
- ^ Rakich, Nathaniel (2021-05-27). "How Red Or Blue Is Your State?". FiveThirtyEight. Retrieved 2022-11-19.
- ^ a b Cotter, Patrick R. "Democratic Party in Alabama". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Retrieved 2017-07-22.
- ^ a b "FACT CHECK: Did a State Democratic Party Logo Once Feature the Slogan 'White Supremacy'?". Snopes.com. 2017-09-25. Retrieved 2017-12-09.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-12-09.
- ^ Denton, Herbert H. (October 21, 1964). "Flowers Attacks Wallace Democrats". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved 2017-12-09.
- ^ a b "Alabama Democratic Party Strikes 'White Supremacy' From Its Motto". Ocala StarBanner. January 23, 1966. p. 1.
- ^ a b c Ingram, Bob (January 21, 1966). "Loyalist Faction Wins; 'White Supremacy' Goes". The Birmingham News.
- ^ Wieck, Paul R. (August 3, 1968). "Southern Democrats: Not What They Used To Be". New Republic. Retrieved 2017-07-22.
- ^ Edmonds, Matthew C. "National Democratic Party of Alabama (NDPA)". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Retrieved 2017-07-22.
- ISBN 978-1135581237.
- ^ DNC approves Alabama bylaws, sets new election dates
- ^ State Supreme Court blocks judge's order, Alabama Democratic Party meeting back on, WVTM-TV
- ^ England, not Worley, certifies list of Alabama Democratic primary candidates
- ^ "#152 The Real Enemy, Part 1 | Reply All". Gimlet. Retrieved 2020-01-15.
- ^ "#153 The Real Enemy, Part 2 | Reply All". Gimlet. Retrieved 2020-01-15.
- ^ "#154 The Real Enemy, Part 3 | Reply All". Gimlet. Retrieved 2020-01-15.
- ^ https://birminghamwatch.org/written-black-white-alabamas-statehouse-parties-split-almost-entirely-race/
- ^ Cason, Mike (July 14, 2022). "Alabama Democrats to pick new chair; Chris England won't seek another term". AL.com. Retrieved August 8, 2022.
- ^ Moseley, Brandon (August 7, 2022). "Tabitha Isner seeking to be Chair of the Alabama Democratic Party". 1819 News. Retrieved August 8, 2022.
- ^ Cason, Mike (July 17, 2022). "Alabama Democratic Party changes: Josh Coleman, Tabitha Isner to run for chair". AL.com. Retrieved August 8, 2022.
- ^ Moseley, Brandon (July 23, 2022). "Brandaun Dean is running for Alabama Democratic Party chair". 1819 News. Retrieved August 8, 2022.
- ^ Poor, Jeff (July 21, 2022). "Griffith floats ADP chair candidacy, says Alabama Democrats 'really are stuck on the Edmund Pettus Bridge'". 1819 News. Retrieved August 8, 2022.
- ^ Moseley, Brandon (August 14, 2022). "Joe Reed-endorsed Randy Kelley elected Alabama Democratic Party chairman". 1819 News. Retrieved August 17, 2022.
- ^ Shipley, Austin (May 8, 2023). "'Sham:' State Dems eliminate LGBTQ, youth, disabled caucuses". Yellowhammer News. Retrieved May 8, 2023.
- ^ Rocha, Alander (May 6, 2023). "Alabama Democrats eliminate youth, LGBTQ+, disabled caucuses at contentious meeting". Alabama Reflector. Retrieved May 8, 2023.
- ^ Moon, Josh (May 8, 2023). "Opinion: The final, fatal blow to the Alabama Democratic Party?". Alabama Political Reporter. Retrieved May 8, 2023.
- ^ Davis, Erin (May 8, 2023). "Alabama Democratic Party eliminates several diversity caucuses". WSFA. Retrieved May 8, 2023.
- ^ Lyman, Brian (June 17, 2023). "Democratic National Committee to review complaint over Alabama Democratic Party meeting". Alabama Reflector. Retrieved July 30, 2023.
- ^ Rocha, Alander (July 29, 2023). "'You be quiet, girl:' Alabama Democrats' board meeting made private after members protest". Alabama Reflector. Retrieved July 30, 2023.
- ^ Rocha, Alander (October 9, 2023). "DNC gives Alabama Democrats February deadline to pass new bylaws". Alabama Reflector. Retrieved October 9, 2023.
- ^ Holmes, Jacob (October 9, 2023). "DNC rules Alabama Democratic Party must create new bylaws with proper vote". Alabama Political Reporter. Retrieved October 9, 2023.
- ^ "Bad symbol removed". Times Daily. March 14, 1996. p. 7B. Retrieved July 22, 2017.
- ^ Sears Henning, Arthur (November 29, 1940). "Alabama Ballot Boasts of White Supremacy". Chicago Tribune.
- ^ "Gov. Dewey Criticizes Alabama Democratic Ballot". New York Journal-American. 10 October 1952.
- ^ "Demos Run Under 'White Supremacy Tag in South". Dixon Evening Telegraph. October 9, 1952. p. 13.
- ^ "Bad symbol removed". TimesDaily. March 14, 1996. p. 7B.
- ^ a b Glenn, John H. (2022-08-15). "Randy Kelley elected chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party". Alabama Political Reporter. Retrieved 2022-08-22.
See also
- Political party strength in Alabama
- List of state parties of the Democratic Party (United States)
- Alabama Republican Party