Alabama GOP Reps. Barry Moore and Jerry Carl are potentially facing a member-on-member primary next year, thanks to redistricting. The good news for them is they’ve been preparing for this for a while.
The Supreme Court rejected another congressional map drawn by Alabama Republicans this week on the grounds that it dilutes the power of Black voters. Now the Alabama map is being redrawn in a way that gives Democrats a shot at a second seat, but it could end up with Carl and Moore in the same district.
We caught up with the two sitting Alabama members on what they think about possibly running against each other.
“Barry is different from Jerry and Jerry is different from Barry,” Carl told us. “We’ll run our race and see what the people want… No one wants this type of race, specifically member-on-member. I’m sure the Alabama Democratic Party is loving it.”
For context, Carl re-upped his intent to run for reelection in Alabama’s 1st District this week.
Moore told us he was leaning toward running for reelection, telling us he “plans to serve as long as possible.” Moore, who represents Alabama’s 2nd District, will likely be the most impacted by the redrawn maps.
“We’re friends,” Moore said, referring to Carl. “We came in at the same time. We’re classmates, so we’ve worked well together. It’s unfortunate that this happened, but we’ll just continue to be friends regardless.”
Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.), the sole Democrat in the Alabama delegation, celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision. Sewell said in a tweet that the court’s ruling was a “big win” for the state’s Black voters.
Former Attorney General Eric Holder, who chairs the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, accused Republicans of using “shameful, odious efforts” to try and diminish the Black vote in Alabama.
Meanwhile, GOP lawmakers condemned the ruling.
Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Ala.) said dividing congressional districts based on race was a form of “segregation.”
“We’re in a really bad place in this country in terms of division,” Palmer told us. “I think this makes it worse.”
— Mica Soellner
