The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has given GOP nominee State Rep. Rhett Marques (R-Enterprise) his own page in the section of its website where the committee posts campaign materials for outside groups, publishing an opposition research report on the state lawmaker’s record.
Wednesday, national political publication NOTUS reported that the pages give super PACs, which party committees are barred from coordinating with directly, messaging priorities and instructions on where to spend, a practice watchdogs call “redboxing.”
The DCCC’s file offers a greatest hits of Marques’ conservative accomplishments as a member of the Alabama House.
It attacks Marques for praising President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill. It faults him for backing a 7-0 Republican congressional map over the 6-1 plan he abstained on — “That means 7-0 map, not 6-1,” he said — and for voting for the CHOOSE Act and the 2024 ban on publicly funded DEI programs.
The DCCC began building its case on August 11, the night Marques won the nomination.
RELATED: DEM POLL: Shomari Figures in a toss-up in the redrawn 2nd District
The Federal Election Commission has determined that requests posted publicly, for a general audience, do not count as illegal coordination, and the agency currently lacks the commissioners to rule on new complaints this cycle.
The Campaign Legal Center argues the law contains no such exception for requests made in plain sight, and that redboxing guts a coordination ban written to keep outside money at arm’s length from campaigns.
The National Republican Congressional Committee, which added the district to its target list in July, runs a counterpart site that listed no Alabama race among its recent updates as of Thursday.
Marques won the special primary with 50% in a six-candidate field.
The Cook Political Report rates the restored district as likely Republican, and the DCCC has released two internal polls showing a statistical tie.
The election for Alabama’s newly-redrawn 2nd District will be held on November 3 — now 67 days away.
Grayson Everett is the editor in chief of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @Grayson270.
