Following Gov. Kay Ivey's signing of two redistricting special election bills on Friday, a liberal, transgender candidate running for Alabama House District 25 is attacking conservatives in the state legislature, accusing them of both racism and discrimination against black voters.
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"The Alabama legislature is trying to put trigger laws in place so that as soon as the Supreme Court rules in their favor, they can disadvantage black voters again," said Allison Montgomery, a biological male who identifies as female. "What they're ultimately trying to do is put back in place the maps that were ruled by federal judges to be racially gerrymandered."
Montgomery alleged Republican lawmakers are pushing a congressional map "in favor of white people."
"The Republicans who were carrying these bills said that they were not creating new maps, and that is true technically, but the old maps that they're trying to return to are ones that were racial gerrymanders in favor of white people," he claimed. "Even after the Civil Rights Act passed, that didn't magically undo the harm that this state had done to black people."
Montgomery added, "There was always work to be done in leveling the playing field for non-white Alabamians after the Civil War, after the Civil Rights Act."
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent landmark majority opinion in Louisiana v. Callais effectively restricts racially based gerrymandering, creating the possibility of seven newly redrawn congressional districts in Alabama, solely favoring Republicans. The transition would likely eliminate two racially based districts in Alabama currently occupied by black Democrats, U.S. Reps. Terri Sewell (D-Birmingham) and Shomari Figures (D-Mobile).
HD25's primary is set for May 19, with the general election scheduled for November 3.
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