U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco ordered Alabama to use a new State Senate redistricting map for 2026.
In the wake of a federal court ruling against Alabama's 2021 State Senate map, Gov. Kay Ivey decided not to call a special session to draw a new map. The ruling agreed with left-wing plaintiffs suing the state, claiming that State Senate Districts 25 and 26 held by State Sens. Will Barfoot (R-Pike Road) and Kirk Hatcher (D-Montgomery) violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
Manasco then ordered a special master to redraw Alabama's State Senate map, ahead of qualifying in January for the 2026 election.
According to an analysis by the special master, the new map makes State Senate District 25 held by Barfoot a blue district where 15 of 17 past races were won by Democrats. However, District 26 held by Hatcher is now a district where the Democrat candidate won 9 of 17 past races.
State Sen. Pro-Tem Garlan Gudger (R-Cullman) said in a statement to 1819 News, “With the U.S. Supreme Court currently considering a landmark redistricting decision, it’s our hope that the judge’s map released on Monday will never be used.”
“It simply flips a Democrat district to Republican and changes a Republican district to Democrat when both should be left as they are,” Gudger said. “It’s like forcing two football teams to swap jerseys with each other at halftime for no apparent reason. The districts passed by the Alabama Senate and approved by the Legislature were fairly drawn under the precedents that were in place at the time, and we are eagerly awaiting the Supreme Court’s decision in the Louisiana case.”
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