A new educational website has compiled a highlight reel of what every Democrat on the Madison County ballot has said and done of note on the record ahead of the November 3 election.
Madison County Values Check asks one question on its front page: “Does this sound like Madison County?”
Voters can type in a street address and pull up the Democratic nominees in their State House and State Senate districts, plus the countywide races for sheriff and three district judgeships.
The site covers 11 candidates. Each page names the opponent, lists the candidate’s statements with numbered sources, and includes a “Follow the money” section noting the campaign raises funds through ActBlue.
The site says it “is for educational purposes only and does not advocate the election or defeat of any candidate.”
HD4: Hanu Karlapalem
Karlapalem, running against State Rep. Parker Moore (R-Decatur), is described under the banner, “Calls America ‘a full fledged dictatorship.’ Called for boycotts of ‘White dominated churches.’”
The site links a July 2025 post on X in which Karlapalem wrote, “this country is already a full fledged dictatorship,” and a January 2025 post reading, “There should be big boycotts of all the White dominated churches, but it won’t happen. They are taught to hate and hate only.”
The site also surfaces a June 2025 post asking, “How many of the federal agencies are infiltrated with fascists, White Nationalists, sympathizers of White Supremacy domestic terrorism, and foreign agents?”
Karlapalem’s page also lists his endorsement from Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund, the Bloomberg-founded gun-control group that called Alabama’s 2022 permitless carry law “dangerous,” and from the Alabama AFL-CIO.
SD2: Rudolph Drake
Drake, facing Republican John Roberts, is summarized under the banner, “A Florida judge found he stalked a woman and issued an injunction against him in 2022.”
The page reproduces images of the Duval County court order and the petitioner’s handwritten statement. Yellowhammer News asked Drake and Democrat Party officials about the injunction in September, but did not receive any responses.
The site also flags Drake’s federal contributions to Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign and the Harris Victory Fund in 2024.
HD25: Allison Montgomery
Montgomery, challenging State Rep. Phillip Rigsby (R-Harvest), is quoted from her platform saying the CHOOSE Act “allows wealthy parents to choose which school their kids go to, while they leech off of poorer public schools.”
However, CHOOSE Act eligibility was capped at about $96,450 for a family of four during its first two school years, and that more than 34,000 Alabama students use the program this year.
Montgomery’s page is the longest on the site. It notes she got her start in legislative advocacy through the Alabama Transgender Rights Action Coalition in 2023, and that she testified in April 2025 against HB246, which would require a parent’s signed permission before a teacher calls a student by a name other than their legal name, calling it “an undue burden on teachers.”
She said the state’s sex-definitions law existed only for “the segregation of transgender people” and was “one step away from a bathroom bill.”
Her platform calls for repealing Alabama’s “so-called ‘Right-to-Work’ Act.” The site notes 69.6% of Alabama voters wrote right-to-work into the state constitution in 2016, and that undoing it would require a three-fifths vote of the Legislature and another statewide vote. She is endorsed by the Alabama AFL-CIO.
On Medicaid, Montgomery says expansion would “allow Alabama to access federal funding that we are currently leaving on the table.”
However, again, the site has an answer. Congress eliminated the expansion bonus in 2025, and even Alabama Arise, which supports expansion, says the state “no longer will be eligible for $619 million.”
HD20: James Linderholm
Linderholm, running against State Rep. James Lomax (R-Huntsville), is accused of scrubbing his campaign website.
The page links archived copies from October 8 and 9 showing public-safety and economy sections that called the new Elmore County prison “obscene” and “immoral” and said non-violent inmates “should be released if they are not a danger to the community.”
Those pages are gone from the live site, which now lists only education, health care and infrastructure.
The archived pages also included a call for a minimum wage above $7.25. His current education page says “The Choose Act is siphoning off up to $250 million from public schools,” with the plan, “Let’s take that voucher money.” The site answers that CHOOSE Act accounts total about $174 million this year, under 2% of an education budget Governor Kay Ivey called “the largest ever in our state’s history.”
The page also notes Linderholm has campaigned against “mudslinging about who is more MAGA” while accepting endorsements from Persist Alabama, a PAC whose stated mission is “turning Alabama blue,” and the Alabama AFL-CIO.
HD10: Marilyn Lands
Lands, the incumbent facing Republican Aaron Thomas, is summarized as “Two years in office, and her headline campaign promises still haven’t become law.”
The page notes Lands won her 2024 special election campaigning on IVF access, and that her bill to protect IVF and contraception, HB 642, was filed with days left in the 2026 session and did not pass.
Her citizen ballot initiative proposal is one she now “plans to reintroduce.” The site also flags her backing from the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, the national party’s operation for flipping state legislatures.
On the grocery tax and Medicaid expansion, her page carries the same fact checks as Sluss’.
District Judge Place 4: Jason M. Jones
Jones, challenging Judge John R. Allen, gets his own words as the headline: “I’m not a candidate who’s saying I’m tough on crime because I’m not.”
The site notes Allen’s reply: “If someone tells you three times they’re not going to be tough on crime, I think you should believe them.”
The page quotes Jones’ campaign ad as well: “Some speak of being tough on crime. That is not the job of a judge.”
It notes he has floated special courts for young people facing marijuana charges, that he is a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and that he is endorsed by the SPLC Action Fund.
Sheriff: Brett Jones
Jones, running against Sheriff Kevin Turner, is quoted saying there is “only one definition” for racial differences in Madison County bond amounts, “and it’s called racism.”
The site answers his claim that “calls are stacking up and response times are increasing” with sheriff’s office data showing violent crime down 23% and burglary down 53% from 2023 to 2025.
SD7: Jared Sluss
Sluss, challenging State Sen. Sam Givhan (R-Huntsville): “Calls the nation’s top-rated Pre-K program ‘half-funded.’ Wants Medicaid expansion on taxpayers’ dime.”
His campaign site runs the slogan “Fund Pre-K, Not Prisons.”
The page answers with the National Institute for Early Education Research’s finding that Alabama’s First Class Pre-K has met all 10 national quality benchmarks for 20 straight years on about $185 million a year in state funding.
RELATED: Alabama’s First Class Pre-K program leads nation in quality for 18th consecutive year
On Medicaid, the page notes the program is the largest single line in the General Fund at about $1.18 billion of a $3.7 billion budget, and that PARCA estimates expansion would cost the state roughly $225 million a year.
On the grocery tax, it notes the Legislature cut the rate from 4% to 2% between 2023 and 2025, suspended it for May and June 2026, and has announced bills to eliminate the rest in 2027.
Grayson Everett is the editor in chief of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @Grayson270.
