On a Wednesday edition of Mobile radio's FM Talk 106.5, State Sen. Will Barfoot (R-Pike Road) discussed the district court-mandated redrawing of Alabama Senate District 26 and his current office, Senate District 25.
According to the lawmaker, last November, U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco ordered Alabama to create a new State Senate redistricting map for the 2026 legislative session.
"To begin with, the plaintiffs in that case sued multiple House districts and Senate districts and listed them with a constitutional claim as well as a Voting Rights Act claim," Barfoot explained on "The Jeff Poor Show." "Eventually, they narrowed down their focus to Madison County and the Montgomery County area in the Senate only, on a voting rights claim act."
"Took it from a three-judge panel to just one federal judge. There's a trial on that. The court found that the state did not violate the Voting Rights Act as it pertained to Madison County. Did find in favor of the plaintiffs in Montgomery County, where Senator Hatcher and I represent. Assigned a special master, there was a map that a high school student at the time drew, and essentially the court said, Well, this is the map that we're going to go with."
Barfoot noted that after the decision, his district now leans liberal.
"And so it only affected District 25 and District 26. That's me, and Senator Hatcher," stated Barfoot. "Currently, District 25 is where I am. I represent all of Crenshaw County, about three-fourths of Montgomery and about three-fourths of Elmore County. What that new map did was it took District 25 out of Elmore County. It completely moved the population base of District 25 further into the city of Montgomery. Essentially changed District 25 from a strong Republican district, made it certainly at least a lean Democrat district."
The redrawing also led to changes in voting preferences for District 26.
"But conversely, it took 26, who Senator Hatcher now represents, which was a very strong Democrat district, and expanded it to Elmore County, to make it a "more lean Republican district," Barfoot said.
"Obviously, the folks of both districts get an opportunity to vote," he continued. "But essentially, what it could be is that it doesn't change the outcome of Republican or Democrat senators that represent either Montgomery or Elmore County and so a lot of time, energy and effort, and unfortunately, taxpayer dollars that the end result may be nothing changes."
A case filed in Louisiana, currently before the U.S. Supreme Court, could have major ramifications for the court-ordered redrawing, according to Barfoot.
"The Louisiana case at the U.S. Supreme Court, Louisiana v. Callais. There's an opinion expected maybe this spring or even into the summer," Barfoot said. "It will have a far-reaching impact on not just the Louisiana map that was the subject of the appeal, but certainly Alabama and other congressional seats around as well as the state Senate seats."
He added, "There's a chance that if some legislation is passed here in state and if the Supreme Court overturns the Louisiana case and applies that to the Alabama factual scenario, we could go right back to where we were. There has to be application of whatever that ruling is, assuming that the ruling at the Supreme Court turns out, like we want it to."
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