By Robyn Hyden, Executive Director of Alabama ARISE, June 8, 2026

For the complete article, visit:  What you need to know about Alabama’s Aug. 11 special primary election - Alabama Arise 

Alabama is redoing primary elections for U.S. House Districts 1, 2, 6 and 7. This means if you live in all of south Alabama and large parts of central Alabama, including most of metropolitan Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile, Dothan and the Black Belt, the votes cast in those U.S. House primary races on May 19 were voided. New special primary elections to select major party candidates are scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 11.

This new congressional map will go into effect for the special primary elections scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 11:

Left: The new district lines for Congressional Districts 1, 2, 6 and 7 will go into effect for the Aug. 11, 2026, special primaries and the Nov. 3, 2026, general election.

The special primary election will be to select the parties’ nominees for the November ballot. So it’s important to keep in mind that not every race will have a contested primary, even if the primary race has to be redone. If only one candidate from the party qualified for the race, there will be no special primary for that party.

• Congressional District 1 voters will have four candidates on the Aug. 11 Republican primary ballot: Lucas Burger, Jerry Carl, John Mills and Austin Sidwell. On the Democratic side, only one candidate – Clyde Jones – has qualified, so he will not appear on the special primary ballot.

• Congressional District 2 voters will have six candidates on the Aug. 11 Republican primary ballot: Hampton Harris, Christian Horn, Rhett Marques, David Matthews, Joshua McKee and James Richardson. On the Democratic side, only one candidate – incumbent U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures – has qualified, so he will not appear on the special primary ballot.

• Congressional District 6 voters will have two candidates on the Aug. 11 Republican primary ballot: Case Dixon and incumbent U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer. This district’s voters will have four candidates on the Aug. 11 Democratic primary ballot: Jacob Bouma-Sims, Ashtyn Kennedy, Maurice Mercer and Keith Pilkington.

• Congressional District 7 voters will have two candidates on the Aug. 11 Republican primary ballot: Ammie Akin and David Perry. On the Democratic side, only one candidate – incumbent U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell – has qualified, so she will not appear on the special primary ballot.

Votes cast in the May 19 primaries for state Senate Districts 25 and 26 also were voided. However, there will be no need to redo those primaries in August because neither party has more than one candidate running in the special primary elections under the new maps.

The candidates who qualified to appear on the ballot for the Nov. 3, 2026, general election will be as follows: Senate District 25 – state Sen. Will Barfoot (R) and Phaedra Foster (D); Senate District 26 – state Sen. Kirk Hatcher (D).

The August special election will be a redo for only the four U.S. House races and two state Senate primary races mentioned above. Votes previously cast for candidates in those districts will be void, and any runoffs that were set to occur as a result of those primaries will not occur.

Several races on the May 11 ballot were not voided and still have a runoff. That means neither candidate secured a majority of the votes to be their party’s nominee. The runoff for those races is still happening on Tuesday, June 16.

If you voted in the May 11 primary, you can vote only in the runoff of the same party in whose primary you voted at that time. However, this has no bearing on the primary election on Aug. 11. You again can choose either party’s ballot in the August election, regardless of which party’s ballot you chose in May.

For the complete article, visit:  What you need to know about Alabama’s Aug. 11 special primary election - Alabama Arise