Alabama's Electoral Map — Then, Now, and What's Next

Alabama's congressional map drawn after the 2000 census created seven U.S. House districts: six majority-white districts that consistently elected Republicans, and one majority-Black district (the 7th) anchored in the Black Belt and parts of Birmingham and Montgomery. That structure — six-to-one — held for the entire decade.

At the state level, Democrats still controlled the Alabama Legislature through 2010, the last vestige of the "Solid South" Democratic Party. Turnout in presidential years hovered around 60% of registered voters, and rural counties outside the Black Belt voted overwhelmingly Republican at the federal level while often splitting tickets locally.

After Republicans took the legislature in the 2010 wave, the 2011 redistricting cycle redrew every map in the state. The new congressional plan kept the 6-to-1 split but packed Black voters more tightly into the 7th District, raising its Black voting-age population well above what was needed to elect a candidate of choice — and bleaching the surrounding districts.

Legislative maps were challenged all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in Alabama Legislative Black Caucus v. Alabama (2015), which ruled the state had unconstitutionally relied on racial quotas. Maps were tweaked, but the basic partisan and racial geometry held through the 2020 elections.

After the 2020 census, the legislature drew yet another 6-to-1 congressional map. Civil rights plaintiffs sued under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, arguing Alabama's Black population — roughly 27% of the state — was large and compact enough to support two opportunity districts, not one.

In June 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court issued Allen v. Milligan, affirming that Alabama's 2021 congressional map likely violated the Voting Rights Act and ordering a second opportunity district. When the legislature refused to comply, a three-judge federal panel imposed a court-drawn map for the 2024 elections.

Under that map, the redrawn 2nd District — stretching from Montgomery through the Black Belt to Mobile — elected Shomari Figures in November 2024, sending Alabama's first second Black member of Congress to Washington and flipping the seat from R to D. The state's House delegation is now 5 Republicans, 2 Democrats.

State legislative maps remain in litigation. Several House and Senate districts in Jefferson, Mobile, and Montgomery counties face Section 2 challenges that could reshape the legislature before 2030.

The new congressional map is the single biggest structural change to Alabama elections in a generation. For the first time since Reconstruction, two of Alabama's seven U.S. House seats are genuinely competitive for Democrats — and the second one (AL-02) will be defended in 2026 in a midterm environment.

Three things to watch heading into 2028:

• Turnout in the Black Belt and the I-65 corridor. The new AL-02 only performs for Democrats if Montgomery, Mobile, and rural Black Belt counties turn out at presidential-year levels. That requires year-round organizing, not just GOTV in October.
• Suburban realignment around Huntsville and Birmingham. College-educated suburban voters in Madison, Shelby, and Jefferson counties have moved 10–15 points toward Democrats since 2016. Whether that continues will decide statewide races for governor and U.S. Senate in 2026.
• Generational replacement. Voters under 40 in Alabama identify as Democrats or independents at nearly double the rate of voters over 65. Every election cycle the electorate gets younger, more diverse, and more urban — and the map now finally reflects part of that reality.