Six Alabama legislative runoffs Tuesday will decide who heads to Montgomery: a district-by-district look

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June 16, 2026

Six Alabama legislative runoffs Tuesday sit in the shadow of the Senate, lieutenant governor and attorney general races. But they will quietly seat the lawmakers who walk into the State House next session.

One Alabama Senate seat and five House seats sit on Tuesday’s runoff ballots. Polls are open statewide from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and there is no crossover voting.

Voters who cast a Republican or Democratic ballot in the May 19 primary must stick with that party Tuesday, while anyone who sat out can choose either.

For four of the six districts, no candidate from the other party qualified for November, so Tuesday’s winner walks straight into office.

Senate District: The lone Senate runoff

The only state Senate runoff sits in fast-growing north Alabama, and it carries the heaviest stakes for the fall. Navy veteran Rudolph Drake of Madison led the Democratic field with about 37% of the vote, narrowly ahead of academic adviser Alex House of Huntsville at 34%. The winner faces Republican John Roberts, a Huntsville real estate and economic development executive, for the open seat covering western Madison County and eastern Limestone County, vacated by State Sen. Tom Butler (R-Madison).

Democrats have circled this race as one of their best pickup opportunities in the state.

Butler won reelection with 55.5% of the vote in 2022, but Kamala Harris carried the district by 0.1% in the 2024 presidential race, according to precinct-level estimates. Huntsville’s growth has reshaped the electorate, and Roberts, who carries endorsements from the Business Council of Alabama and the Alabama Farmers Federation, faces a real test in a district Republicans have long controlled.

House District 17: Segraves came within a whisker

This open northwest Alabama seat nearly skipped the runoff entirely.

Former Guin Mayor Phil Segraves fell three-tenths of a point short of winning outright in May, taking 49.7% to Winfield travel ball coordinator Micheal Beck’s 27% in a three-way field. The district covers all of Marion and Lamar counties and part of Winston County, vacated by State Rep. Tracy Estes (R-Winfield).

No Democrat qualified, so Tuesday’s winner heads directly to Montgomery. Beck has centered his campaign on opposing gambling expansion.

House District 37: Open seat in the east

Republicans Jeff Monroe and John Jacobs are competing for the open seat covering Randolph and Chambers counties, vacated by retiring State Rep. Bob Fincher (R-Woodland). Monroe, the mayor of Five Points and a retired firefighter and paramedic, led the three-way May primary with 38%.

Jacobs, the longtime Randolph County schools superintendent, followed at 35%. Unlike most of Tuesday’s legislative runoffs, this one heads to a contested general election, where the Republican nominee faces Democrat Michelle French, a Roanoke graphic designer.

House District 95: Farmers Federation takes aim at an incumbent

The sharpest fight on the ballot is in South Baldwin County, where State Rep. Frances Holk-Jones (R-Foley) is working to hold off challenger Joe Freeman. Holk-Jones led the May primary with 42% to Freeman’s 39%.

The race has become a proxy fight over FarmPAC, the Alabama Farmers Federation’s political arm and one of the most influential operations in the state.

FarmPAC endorsed Freeman, a Gulf Shores financial advisor and former law enforcement officer running on an anti-gambling platform, and the group accounts for roughly 61% of his campaign contributions. Holk-Jones has raised nearly $631,000 since 2023, about 79% from political action committees including the Poarch Creek, Alabama Hospital and Forestry PACs.

FarmPAC-backed challengers ran strong across the state in May. The winner faces no Democrat in November.

House District 52: The incumbent is already gone

The biggest down-ballot story of the cycle has already happened here. State Rep. Kelvin Datcher (D-Birmingham) finished third in his own May primary, falling to attorney Gigi Hayes and family court judicial assistant LaTanya Millhouse.

Hayes led with 49% to Millhouse’s 26%, with Datcher trailing at 25%.

Datcher had held the Birmingham-area seat only since a 2024 special election to replace former State Rep. John Rogers, who resigned after a federal guilty plea. No Republican qualified, so the runoff winner becomes the next representative.

House District 82: Pebblin Warren fights to hold on

State Rep. Pebblin Warren (D-Tuskegee), first elected in 2005, was held to 48% in May and forced into a runoff against Sidney “Doc” Brown, an assistant chief of staff at Tuskegee University, who took 23%. The Macon County seat has no Republican on the ballot, so Tuesday’s winner is unopposed in November.

Turnout history isn’t encouraging. The 2022 runoff drew under 13% of registered voters statewide. For four of these six seats, a few hundred ballots Tuesday will decide who represents these communities for the next four years.

Sawyer Knowles is a state and political reporter for Yellowhammer News. You may contact him at [email protected].