The Business Council of Alabama is continuing to transform its political arm into the best resourced, most aggressive political action committee in Alabama – under a new name that reflects the state’s trajectory.
On Wednesday night at Ross Bridge in Birmingham, BCA President and CEO Helena Duncan addressed a ballroom full of lawmakers, candidates and the executives who fund their work that ProgressPAC, the state business community’s moniker since 1993, is now WorkPAC.
ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit headlined the annual dinner.
“I’m proud to announce that ProgressPAC is becoming WorkPAC,” she said as the new brand was unveiled.
Now less than two weeks until the November 3 general election, BCA is finishing a cycle that began with a show of force.
In 2022, ProgressPAC gave about $1.4 million to candidates, nearly all of them legislative. In 2024, the group launched Campaign 2026 with a $4 million fundraising goal, a pledge to support pro-business leaders, and a promise to recruit and elect candidates to open seats.
By the following summer the PAC had blown past that number, reporting $4.2 million raised and moving the target to $5 million. In 2025, BCA brought in strategist Scott McClintock as political director and rolled out endorsement slates in waves through the fall.
Duncan said those results speak for themselves.
“This election cycle, we’ve taken our political operation to an entirely new level. We’ve been more strategic, more intentional, and more engaged than ever before,” she said. “And we’re seeing the results of that work.”
“Several years ago, we set out with an ambitious goal: To completely redefine what our PAC could be,” Duncan said. “We didn’t want to simply write checks. We wanted to build relationships. We wanted to be strategic in our investments. We wanted to be a true partner to the candidates we support.”
“Tonight, just weeks before the general election, I can confidently say we’ve done exactly that.”
Notable knife-fight primary wins for BCA this cycle included the primary elections of State Rep. James Lomax (R-Huntsville) over former Congressman Mo Brooks, Alicia Escott Lumpkin over outgoing-State Rep. Juandalynn Givan (D-Birmingham), as well as Scott Ortis over outgoing-State Sen. Dan Roberts (R-Mountain Brook).
The re-election campaigns of Alabama Speaker of the House Nathaniel Ledbetter (R-Rainsville) and Alabama Senate President Pro Tem Garlan Gudger (R-Cullman) were chief among BCA’s first wave of 2026 primary election endorsements.
RELATED: ‘Coach Means Business’: BCA launches statewide campaign backing Tuberville for Governor
Last month the PAC launched “Coach Means Business,” a statewide billboard and digital campaign for Republican nominee for governor U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn), with the “Means Business” branding extended into selected legislative races. It made a strong and resounding endorsement of Tuberville in 2025 right after he announced his bid and cleared the field.
“But somewhere along the way, something else happened,” Duncan said. “We outgrew our name.”
WorkPAC is “bigger than any one election, bigger than any one candidate, and bigger than any one business,” she said.
“It’s about the people who get up every morning and go to work. The entrepreneurs who take risks. The employers who create jobs. The businesses that invest in our communities. And the opportunities we want to create for the next generation of Alabamians. That’s who we stand for. That’s what drives us. And that’s what our PAC should represent.
We believe in making Alabama work. And we believe in electing leaders who work for Alabama.”
Duncan said their work goes far beyond November 3, “we’re also thinking about November 2030,” and concluded with an even more ambitious mark for the state’s business lobby.
“Four years from now, I want to stand on this stage and tell you that WorkPAC has become the largest political action committee in the state of Alabama.”
Grayson Everett is the editor in chief of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @Grayson270.
