U.S. Rep. Jerry Carl is still optimistic that his party can hold on to Alabama’s Second Congressional District despite the newly redrawn map.
Last week, a three-judge panel made its selection from maps proposed by an appointed Special Master after ruling last month that the maps authorized by the Alabama Legislature did not meet the standards of the Voting Rights Act.
District 2 will now have a 48.7% Black voting age population, causing many to believe that a Democrat will most likely win that congressional seat.
Carl (R-Mobile) discussed the issue Thursday on FM Talk 106.5 “Midday Mobile” radio show.
“District 2 at 48%, we’ve got an election year with a president on the ballot, a very popular Donald Trump is who it’s probably going to be, so that will be a heavy turnout on the Republican side,” Carl said. “So we’ve got a very strong chance of taking District 2.”
The congressman also thinks it’s a possibility Republicans could win every seat in the state.
“In district 7, you know you say ‘Terri’s been in there a long length of time,’ I agree,” he said. “She’s got name recognition, but again with a president being on the ballot and being a heavy Trump state, at 51% we’ve got a strong shot of that too. You’re going to see us go after both 1,2 and 7 very heavily.”
Carl said he’s willing to help the GOP in any way he can to win those contested seats.
“With District 2, I can certainly help them in Mobile, Washington, and Monroe county and help them to pull those Republican votes together and get a high turnout,” he said. “You look at Terri’s district, you’ve got all the members of the Republican Party, I assume, I can’t speak for them, I assume will be helping as much as we can. It’s going to be a matter of raising money.”
The lawmaker realizes he might have to run in a primary against U.S. Rep. Barry Moore (R-Enterprise), but said there’s a good chance Moore could be more successful by running in District 2.
“The last thing I want to do is run against a colleague and I’m sure he feels the same way too,” Carl said. “I don’t have any options, Barry really does have options in that 60% of this new district is a part of Barry’s old district. So he could easily start with 60% of the support there in District 2. I know a lot of people are encouraging him to look at that. Again, he’s a grown man. This is not his first campaign. He’ll figure out what’s best for he and his family, and that’s what he’ll do.”
Carl said his team planned for this and is ready to win reelection.
“My saying in life has never changed,” he said. “You plan for the worst and hope for the best. And this is certainly the worst-case scenario that I can think of…we planned for this worst-case scenario and this is it. So we’ve really been working our home base here in district 1, talking with as many people as we can, as many elected officials as we can, and sharing our thoughts of where this is going.
“And we’ve also been in the Wiregrass working … We’ve already go a ground game set out for the Wiregrass district. So, literally, we are set and ready to go.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
Don’t miss out! Subscribe today to have Alabama’s leading headlines delivered to your inbox.