Datagraphic: Robert Aderholt secures the biggest Republican win of any contested House race in America – here’s how

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November 9, 2026

U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Haleyville) won a 16th term Tuesday with 160,008 votes to 53,633 for Democrat Amanda Pusczek, 74.8% to 25.1%, in a district the Cook Political Report rates R+33, the most Republican congressional district in the United States.

The margin was 106,375 votes. No Republican in a contested U.S. House race reported so far has a higher share. U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers of Kentucky is next at 71.3%.

Aderholt ran ahead of Governor-elect Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) in all 13 counties in the district. In the 11 counties that lie entirely inside its lines, Aderholt received 127,275 votes to Tuberville’s 120,926, a 78.9% share against the governor-elect’s 75%. The gap was widest in Franklin at 5 points, Walker at 4.9, Marshall at 4.5 and Colbert at 4.4. About 6,200 people in those 11 counties voted for Doug Jones for governor and Aderholt for Congress.

His strongest county was Winston at 86.4%, followed by Marion at 85.9%, Cullman at 84.9%, Lamar at 83.5% and Blount at 83.2%. Cullman supplied his largest raw total, 23,002 votes. His weakest counties were the two the district shares with other districts, the Tuscaloosa County portion at 62% and the Lauderdale County portion at 63.3%, and Colbert at 63%.

Pusczek, a Huntsville-area nurse who won the Democratic nomination in May with 62.8% over Shane Weaver, drew 36.7% in the Lauderdale portion, 37% in Colbert and 38% in the Tuscaloosa portion. In the other 10 counties she finished between 13.5% and 24.7%.

The district’s floor

The 11 whole counties have 405,748 registered voters. About 335,700 are white and 16,343 are Black, 4% of the roll against 22.7% statewide. In the 12 counties with straight-party totals available, voters cast about 106,000 straight Republican tickets and 29,200 straight Democrat tickets. Statewide the split was 645,002 to 549,433.

Those counties have voted Republican at the top of the ticket by at least 65% in every general election since 2010, when Robert Bentley carried them with 65.7% against Ron Sparks while winning the state with 57.9%. Donald Trump took 85.1% there in 2016. Governor Kay Ivey took 90.2% in 2022. Tuberville’s 75% is the lowest Republican share in the counties since the 2017 Senate special, when Roy Moore took 74%, and it still ran 23 points ahead of the statewide number.

Aderholt’s 74.8% was his lowest in a contested general election since 2012, when he received 74% against Democrat Daniel Boman in the district’s first election under the 2011 map. He took 79.8% in 2018, 82.2% in 2020 and 84.2% in 2022. He drew no Democratic opponent in 2010, 2014, 2016 or 2024.

The drop from 2022 tracks the statewide ticket. The Republican share of the governor’s vote fell 17 points in Alabama between 2022 and 2026. In the 11 whole counties of the 4th District it fell 15. Aderholt’s share fell 9.4 points over the same period, against a Democrat who spent the fall campaigning in a district where her party cast fewer than 30,000 straight tickets.

Turnout

Fewer people voted in every one of the 11 whole counties than in the 2018 governor’s race. Fayette was down 20%, Walker 18%, Marion 17%, Lamar 15%, Colbert 11% and DeKalb 10%. Combined, the 11 counties cast 163,041 ballots, down from 180,394 in 2018. Statewide, turnout was down 2%.

Against 2022, the counties were up in 10 of 11, led by DeKalb at 12% and Marshall at 11%. Marion was the exception, down 3%.

The counties that stayed home are the same ones that held their Republican margins. Fayette moved 10 points toward Tuberville compared with 2018.

Marion moved 2. Lamar and Walker held within 4 points. Across the state, the counties with the largest turnout drops were the counties with the smallest Republican losses, and most of them sit inside the 4th District.

Aderholt, first elected in 1996, is the senior member of Alabama’s House delegation and sits on the Appropriations Committee, where he chairs the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education subcommittee.

The district covers Cullman, Jasper, Hamilton, Russellville, Fort Payne, Guntersville, Oneonta, Haleyville and the Shoals, along with Northport and the northern part of Tuscaloosa County.

Grayson Everett is the editor in chief of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @Grayson270.