Alabama is headed for a runoff election on June 16, and a special election on August 11. The special election was made possible thanks to the Supreme Court decision to vacate the Northern District Court three-judge panel who not once, but twice, ruled that Alabama’s 2023 congressional maps violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
In light of the Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais decision, which deemed the use of race as a determinant for drawing congressional districts as unconstitutional, the Alabama secretary of state and attorney general petitioned SCOTUS for redress, 1819 News reported. Thankfully, our state prevailed.
The U.S. Supreme Court granted Alabama a stay of court orders issued last week, officially allowing the August 11 Special Primary Election to go forward using the 6-1 Republican 2023 congressional map drawn by the Legislature.
This decision upended the two so-called majority-minority districts, District 2 and District 7. U.S. Reps. Terri Sewell (D-Birmingham) and Shomari Figures (D-Mobile) will face new challengers with a different set of voters thanks to the implementation of the 2023 map.
Both incumbents are crying foul, racism and Jim Crow. Figures called the ruling “dangerous.”
But in 2024, a black Republican candidate for District 7, Christian Horn, who received 58% of the primary vote, decided to drop out because he claimed the system was rigged not against blacks, but against Republicans.
Horn explained the scheme was set into action when congressional maps were redrawn ‘through the exclusive use of race to draw congressional maps, secure a seat for ‘black voters’ who most frequently vote Democratic and will again in 2024.’
As a black Republican, Horn told 1819 News he was offended.
‘They said there were no candidates that black people had to vote for,’ Horn said. ‘And to me that's horrible.’
‘[I]t's extremely offensive,’ he continued. ‘I am extremely offended. My heritage is from congressional district 7 and you have people who look like me who voted for me … I am so offended. I'm so hurt.’
If one believes in sowing and reaping, then this is Sewell and her party reaping the bad seeds they have sown on the backs of voters who wanted a choice for real representation, not the kind based on carcass worship and partisan hackery.
Now Sewell and Figures will have to sing for their supper, working for the votes of all constituents, not just those who favor their political party or share their skin color.
Sewell, in particular, is beating her drum across preferred media. “It is absolutely wrong in this democracy to dilute or eliminate the voice of any Americans,” she claimed on one program.
Yet since 2011, Sewell has favored and advocated for the dilution and elimination of voices that don’t look or vote like her. Sewell arrogantly assumes black people will only vote for black Democrat candidates, yet she expects her non-black constituents to vote for her. Does anyone see the pretzel logic in this assumption?
Sewell’s statement on the Supreme Court decision to reinstall the 2023 map said, in part:
Black voters in Alabama deserve more than just some representation. We deserve fair representation. That means two congressional seats where African Americans have the opportunity to elect candidates of our choice.
Sewell presumptively thinks she speaks for all “black voters” in Alabama. This was also apparent in a congressional hearing this week with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Instead of Sewell asking questions which would have benefited all Alabamians, she ranted about “black and brown Americans” feeling under attack.
WATCH:
Sewell used a similar tactic in April with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy. It seems crying suppression and racism when things don’t go her way is all Sewell knows how to do.
Many black and brown Americans I know don’t feel under attack at all by this administration; what we desire to see is a removal of race baiters and partisan hacks like Sewell from office. Now that we have returned to the 2023 maps, electing representatives who care for all of their constituents needs to become a feature, not just a bug.
It is unclear whether this sea change will occur in the November 2026 midterm, but with a map that moves the focus back to voting patterns rather than racial gerrymandering, it will happen eventually.
Sewell is not the only one-trick pony who won’t accept change. State Rep. Juandalynn Givan (D-Birmingham), who protested against the Alabama Legislature’s vote to reinstitute the maps, was defeated in the May 19 primary by Alicia Escott Lumpkin, a former staffer to Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin. This is a sterling example of black voters and voices being heard loud and clear. Givan’s constituents rejected her and decided it was time for another black woman to represent them.
Yet “black and brown” voices must not matter to Givan, because she has sued to disqualify Lumpkin from taking the District 60 seat.
Givan needs to stop crying about how black and brown voters are being suppressed when she wants to suppress the votes which upended her quest for power.
To all those black and brown voters who, like Sewell and Givan, are crying about suppression: You best show up en masse on August 11 and November 3. If you don’t, then we will all know this was about theater and the appearance of representation, instead of doing the actual work required to maintain that representation.
Jennifer Oliver O'Connell, As the Girl Turns, is an investigative journalist, author, opinion analyst, and contributor to 1819 News, Redstate, and other publications. Jennifer writes on Politics and Pop Culture, with occasional detours into Reinvention, Yoga, and Food. You can read more about Jennifer's world at her As the Girl Turns website. You can also follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Telegram.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to [email protected].
Don't miss out! Subscribe to our newsletter and get our top stories every weekday morning.
