Alabama lawmakers pushed special election bills toward the finish Friday as protesting broke out in the gallery and outside the state house.
The House briefly recessed as Dee Reed, a voting rights activist, was walked out of the gallery by several state troopers and building security.
She was not arrested.
Several members of the House Democratic caucus rushed upstairs and Reps. Juandalynn Givan and Mary Moore stepped in to intervene.
“I asked them to let me handle it,” Givan said.
“She had the right to protest, she has the right to use her voice,” said Rep. Ontario Tillman.
Dee Reed of Black Voters Matter is carried out of the House gallery by state troopers after protesting, May 8, 2026. (Will McLelland | AL.com)
Will McLelland
Members of the House caucus huddled afterward to discuss.
“Let’s be honest,” House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter said later of protesters. “They’re bussing these people in. Probably some of these people are not even from Alabama. And they did it intentionally to try to get attention.”
Most Democratic lawmakers acted professionally and Republicans were willing to hear them, he said.
The House returned from the recess about an hour later and passed a bill that will allow special elections later this year if Republicans receive a favorable ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court.
“All we’re doing is setting up the opportunity to nominate people for these offices should the court change,” said Rep. Chris Pringle, R-Mobile, who sponsored one of the bills. “Now is the time to do it.”
“We certainly hope that the Supreme Court will overturn” previous rulings and allow Alabama to make changes to districts, Ledbetter told press.
As of Friday, May 19 primaries will be held as scheduled.
Democratic lawmakers said they were disappointed and plan to challenge the potential changes in court.
“All we ever ask for as Black people is an equal opportunity,” said Rep. Napoleon Bracy. “We’re not asking for an advantage, any more or any less. But we at least want the same opportunity as everybody elese.”
What the special session does
The state bills set up a process for special elections in certain districts later in 2026, but are contingent on rulings from the courts.
Gov. Kay Ivey called the emergency session after the Supreme Court ruled that a second majority Black congressional district in Louisiana was a racial gerrymander.
Alabama is now using a congressional district map that has two predominantly Black districts. The map was drawn by federal courts three years ago and allowed Democrats to elect the second Black member in Alabama’s seven-member U.S. House delegation.
Republican leaders want the Supreme Court to allow the state to use a map the Legislature passed in 2023, one that did not have the second Black opportunity district and that a federal court said last year was an intentional effort to dilute the influence of Black voters.
The Alabama congressional map used in the 2024 election (left) with voting results, and the congressional map originally drawn by the legislature in 2023 and blocked in the courts (right), with likely voter distribution.Ramsey Archibald
An election using that map would likely flip District 2, held by Democrat Shomari Figures of Mobile, back to the GOP.
Republicans have uniformly supported the bill, HB1 by Rep. Chris Pringle, R-Mobile. They hold 27 of 35 Senate seats and will decide the bill’s fate.
Democrats strongly oppose the bill and say it is a step back toward racial inequality of the Jim Crow era because it would take away Black representation in a state that is 27% Black.
Sen. Greg Albritton, R-Atmore, is handling the bill in the Senate.
Albritton noted that the bill would only take effect if the Supreme Court lifts the injunction.
Senate Minority Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, was the first Democrat to speak in opposition to the bill.
Singleton told Albritton that the Supreme Court’s opinion in the Louisiana case said it did not affect its earlier ruling in favor of the Black voters in the Alabama case.
“Everything that you’re standing here for principally is untrue,” Singleton said.
“All I’m saying is let the courts figure this out,” Albritton said.
“They already figured it out,” Singleton said, noting that the court’s position in the Alabama case has not changed.
Singleton noted Alabama officials told the federal court last year they would not challenge the current injunction on redrawing Congressional lines until after the 2030 census.
Singleton said the Republican majority would have the opportunity to pursue a new map under the reasoning in the Louisiana case in 2030.
“So why are we rushing?” Singleton said.
“This is all playing to Trump. This is all playing to Washington.”
Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, said the redistricting dispute is not about political parties, but about race.
“Let’s peel the camouflage back,” Smitherman said. “Let’s call if to what it is.”
“We’re in here trying to erase Black political representation,” he said.
Albritton, the Republican senator handling the bill, told Smitherman the debate was important and an example of how the political system should work.
“I believe we all are of the opinion that we see each other as individuals, and what our character is, and each person is, rather than the superficials,” Albritton said.
While Republicans have characterized the issue as partisan, Democrats have said the dispute cannot be separated from the state’s history of racial injustice.
“It ain’t about Ds and Rs,” Smitherman said. “It ain’t never been about that.”
“We ain’t Ds,” Smitherman said. “We are humans. And we represent people.”
Sen. Vivian Davis Figures, D-Mobile, who is the mother of Shomari Figures, said she did not see how Republicans could defend the Legislature’s map, with one majority Black district out of seven, considering that Blacks make up almost 30% of the state population.
“How can anyone honestly argue that represents fair representation?” Figures said. “How cany anyone say this map reflects the people of Alabama.”
Albritton said the Republican-led Legislature had the duty and the right to draw maps that reflect the Republican majority.
Albritton said Republicans were not defying the court, but preparing to align with the court’s position if it lifts the injunction.
Sen. Robert Stewart, D-Selma, said his grandmother, a sharecropper’s daughter, was a nurse who treated marchers injured on Bloody Sunday.
Stewart brought to the Senate floor a photo of his aunt, Flossie Menifee, standing on the Edmund Pettus Bridge that day in 1965.
“Bludgeoned on the Edmund Pettus Bridge,” Stewart said. “Tear gas. Billy clubs. Trampled over for the right to vote.
“Not a long time ago. And we don’t even have the Voting Rights Act for 50 years. That is a sin and a shame.”
Sen. Merika Coleman, D-Pleasant Grove, said the bill calling for a special primary would violate a constitutional amendment voters approved in 2022.
The amendment says bills affecting a general election must be implemented at least six months before the general election.
The general election this year is Nov. 3.
Figures hosted an event Thursday night where longtime civil rights activists and lawmakers spoke about the issues.
People who agree with the Democrats have protested inside and outside the State House throughout the week.
The second primary could happen only if federal courts lift the injunction on using the Legislature’s map in time for the primary results to be certified by Aug. 26.
The second primary would be for congressional districts 1, 2, 6, and 7, the four that have different boundaries under the court-drawn map.
District 1 and 2 changed the most, and District 2, held by Figures, is the one that would likely flip to Republicans.
The second primary in those four districts would negate the results of the May 19 primary.
Lawmakers are considering a second bill to hold a second primary affecting just two state Senate districts in the Montgomery area.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
