There is an open seat for the U.S. House of Representatives across the nine South Alabama counties of Alabama’s 1st Congressional District.

Rather than running for a comfortable re-election bid, U.S. Rep. Barry Moore (R-Enterprise) is seeking the open seat for the U.S. Senate being left by U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) in 2026, who is running for the open seat of Governor of Alabama.

Two of the candidates in the May 19, 2026 Republican Party primary for the seat faced off on Thursday at the Eastern Shore Republican Women’s Club. A full house packed the dining room of the Fairhope Yacht Club.

Former U.S. Rep. Jerry Carl of Mobile is seeking to return to the seat he previously held but lost in 2024.

Re-drawing of the district lines under federal court order placed U.S. Rep. Barry Moore (R-Enterprise) in the same district as Carl in 2023. In an unusual situation, two incumbent congress members ran against each other. Moore won a close race, and Carl left Congress in January 2025.

State Rep. Rhett Marques (R-Enterprise), who launched his first bid for federal office in August, is a Coffee County lawmaker and businessman. He hails from Baldwin County originally, which gives him geographic appeal across nearly the entire redrawn 1st District.

Moore left that Alabama House seat to run for Congress in 2018 – and Marques was elected to fill it. He was re-elected in 2022. He is up for election again in 2026 but is foregoing that run to seek the open congressional seat.

Josh McKee of Baldwin County, a 25-year U.S. special forces veteran, was not at the forum, reportedly due to a schedule conflict. Other candidates may enter the race in advance of the January 23, 2026 qualifying deadline.

The new U.S. Representative for District 1 will be vital, because they will serve during the final two years of the Donald Trump administration. Efforts to complete the Trump agenda and put it in stone for the future need to be completed during the two-year term for which Carl and Marques are competing.

Carl said he has talked with U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) and that his seniority and committee assignments will be restored to him if he is elected again.

One of Carl’s committee assignments was the powerful appropriations committee, which can allocate funds for the Port of Mobile, the I-10 Bayway Bridge, and military contracts at industries in Mobile and at Fort Rucker in Enterprise.

“I’ve had the privilege of serving you for four years as your congressman on committees like Natural Resources, Armed Services, and Appropriations. In fact, if elected, Speaker Johnson tells me I get my seniority back as well as I’m back on natural resources and appropriations. Folks, that is huge for this district. Huge,” Carl said.

“I’ve been recognized by and won several awards of some of the most conservative groups in Washington, based groups on my voting record. Last but not least, I’ve been endorsed twice by President Donald Trump because of my conservative values.”

“This will be Trump’s last two years in office, better known as a lame duck,” Carl said.

Marques’ resume includes seven years serving in the Alabama House and 23 years in a private tire business in Enterprise, which he sold in 2023.

Carl also had 40 years work in the private sector, mostly in the healthcare and medical equipment businesses. He was twice elected and served eight years on the Mobile County Commission and served two terms on the Alabama Port Authority.

Marques made a point that he was born in Baldwin County’s Spanish Fort and finished high school at Fairhope High in 1990.

Both candidates said they would abolish the federal Department of Education.

“I think it is vital that parents have the opportunities to make sure their children are educated in the way they want them to be educated, whether that’s home school, private school, or public school,” Marques said. “I graduated from Fairhope as a public school. My daughters both graduated from Enterprise, which is a public school, so I understand.”

“I stand strong with President Trump on getting rid of the Department of Education.”

“I believe that education should be at a state and local level. We know how to educate our children here better than some bureaucrat in Washington, DC with the one-size-fits-all from that covers from Washington to Maine and down here. We do not raise our children with the same Alabama values that somebody in a different state raises them,” Marques added.

Carl said, “I think the US Department of Education needs to be closed immediately. I think that money needs to be sent to the state and that money needs to trickle down to the local government.”

He told a story of federal mishandling of education that he encountered while a member of Congress. He asked the Library of Congress to send 400 books to a small school in Atmore.

“So they made a mistake. Instead of shipping them directly to the school, they shipped them to my office. I told them, I said, well, let’s go through those books. My, my wife’s an educator, my daughter’s an educator, my daughter-in-law’s in education. So let’s go through those books and make sure what’s in there first. I’m telling you, some of the books in there embarrass me. Just looking at it by myself. I could not imagine that these were for second or third grade students.”

“We don’t need that type of trash down here in South Alabama. That’s not us.”

“I am not for the Department of Education. I think it’s bloated. I think it’s bureaucracy. I think it’s got tremendous amounts of fat and we, we need to cut it down and gut it completely. Do away with it. Let that money trickle down.

“I know my daughter is tired of taking toilet paper and things to kids in the classrooms. I know the teachers would like it,” Carl said.

The nine counties comprising Alabama’s first congressional district are: Baldwin Coffee, Covington, Dale, Escambia, Geneva, Henry, Houston and parts of Mobile County.

Jim Zig Zeigler is a contributing writer for Yellowhammer News. His beat includes the positive and colorful about Alabama – her people, events, groups and prominent deaths. He is a former State Auditor and Public Service Commissioner. You can reach him at [email protected]