Federal prosecutor Lloyd Peeples decisively defeated longtime incumbent State Rep. Jim Carns (R-Mountain Brook) in a three-way Republican primary for Alabama House District 48 on Tuesday, winning the race outright and avoiding a runoff.
Peeples took 3,365 votes (55.84%), with Carns receiving 2,282 (37.87%) and businessman William Wentowski earning 379 (6.29%). District 48 covers portions of south Jefferson County and north Shelby County, including parts of Mountain Brook, Vestavia Hills, Hoover, and Homewood.
Carns, 85, has had one of the longest tenures in the Legislature, serving in the House from 1990 to 2006 before returning to the seat in a 2011 special election to fill the vacancy left when then-State Rep. Greg Canfield was appointed to head the Alabama Development Office. In between his two House stints, Carns served on the Jefferson County Commission from 2006 to 2010, including as president pro tempore during the county’s bond crisis.
He currently serves as chairman of the House Commerce and Small Business Committee and chairman of the Jefferson County Legislation Committee, the 18-member delegation that handles local bills for the state’s most populous county. Over his combined House tenure, Carns has also served as House Minority Leader, chairman of the House Republican Caucus, and chairman of the Industrial Development and Economic Growth Committee.
His legislative legacy includes drafting and passing Alabama’s first Voter ID legislation in 2003, sponsoring landmark welfare reform legislation, and writing the bill that established the state’s Holocaust Commission. He has consistently received high marks from conservative scorecards, including the Eagle Forum, Christian Coalition, Business Council of Alabama, and the National Rifle Association.
Carns, a 1962 University of Alabama engineering graduate and Briarwood Presbyterian Church elder, is a lifelong Jefferson County resident.
Peeples is the senior trial counsel in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Alabama. Since 2003, he has held a series of leadership roles at the office, including deputy chief, civil/criminal healthcare fraud coordinator, chief of the criminal division, and first assistant U.S. Attorney. He has handled cases involving public corruption, child exploitation, kidnapping, and financial crimes.
With no Democratic challenger, Peeples is set to take the seat after November’s general election, closing the book on more than three decades of Carns’ involvement in the seat.
