7. It is October Surprise season, but the latest attacks are kind of a dud, with a video being released by the Young Turks alleging that three men, including the late U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), paid them for sex, and “social media star” Harry Sisson declared, “Republicans are the party of the Confederacy and never let them tell you otherwise,” amid a leaked photo of Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith with a Confederate rifle and hat.

6. Anti-abortion organizations disputed claims of a near-zero abortion rate in Alabama, noting that while only three surgical abortions were recorded in-state in 2025, self-managed abortion remains legal at any stage because the state’s homicide law protects preborn children but carves out abortion, with the Foundation to Abolish Abortion reporting at least 7,190 telehealth abortions via mailed pills and 4,090 out-of-state surgical procedures for a total of at least 11,280 abortions of Alabama residents, more than in 2019.

5. Megan Lorraine Utz was indicted on two counts for threats against the President of the United States and interstate transmission of threatening communication after posting on Facebook about President Donald Trump’s planned visit to Tuscaloosa for the Alabama-Georgia game, stating, “I’ll put a bullet through him if he dares,” she would later claim she was hacked but no one believes that.

4. U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Birmingham) and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) joined U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures (D-Montgomery) at a Montgomery campaign rally emphasizing voting urgency, with Sewell saying, “We cannot do it with just us in this room. It takes all of us,” while criticizing a Supreme Court ruling that allows partisan redistricting, as Alabama Republicans work to flip the redrawn 2nd Congressional District that once seemed safe for Figures.

3. Madison County Judge John Allen slammed his Democratic opponent Jason M. Jones for a soft-on-crime approach, saying “Jones has three times on video stated that he is not tough on crime; he’s fair on crime, and I think that’s a false choice,” and that “If someone tells you three times they’re not going to be tough on crime, I think you should believe them.”

2. Governor-elect National Championship-winning Coach U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) pledged that as governor he will end tax breaks for data centers, “If your community says no, my answer is no,” and that they will go in the highest property tax class, pay the full cost of power lines, substations, and water systems, and replace the capacity they take, while ensuring “No family or small business will pay a single cent more because of a data center.”

1. Governor-elect National Championship-winning Coach U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) continues to lay out his agenda, his first executive order as governor will be an audit of every agency, grant, and contract across Alabama government, with results on a public dashboard, while putting the widening of Interstate 65 to three lanes from the Tennessee line to Mobile at the top of his first budget, and releasing a “Back to Basics” playbook that calls for cutting the income tax in steps, eliminating the remaining grocery tax, freezing hiring outside public safety and direct care, and shrinking Montgomery through mergers and efficiency reviews.

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Dale Jackson is a thought leader for Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 5-9 a.m. weekdays on WVNN.