Alabama State Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton says he needs the chairmanship of the Alabama Democratic Party ‘like I need a hole in my head.’

“I know I’m walking into a hornet’s nest,” Singleton (D-Greensboro) leader told the “Alabama Politics This Week” podcast. “But at the end of the day, I’m willing to be stung. … I didn’t come to play with it or to be somebody’s puppet.”

Alabama Democrats have spent the better part of a decade split between a faction loyal to 2026 gubernatorial hopeful Doug Jones and one loyal to Joe Reed, the Alabama Democratic Conference boss who has run some version of this show for half a century.

The feud produced a lawsuit claiming Jones tried to “give control of the Alabama Democratic Party to Whites,” repeated collisions with the national party, and, last August, a DNC vote to strip Alabama of members it said were elected in a “flawed” process.

Reed underboss Randy Kelley has held the chairmanship since State Rep. Chris England (D-Tuscaloosa) was shoved out in 2022. The party’s reorganization meeting on Saturday, Aug. 8, decides whether he keeps it.

Singleton announced his challenge last week and insists he belongs to neither camp.

“I’m 65 years of age. I’m a grown ass man. I make up my own decisions,” he said. “I have not talked to Joe Reed before I made up this mind. I had not talked to Doug Jones, and I’m using those two names because those are the sides that people say you either gonna be on — one side or the other. … I wasn’t calling them and asking for permission.”

Neutral ground is rare in a party whose current figurehead once pronounced its current nominee for governor “a racist.” Jones now tops what Singleton calls “the greatest ticket that I’ve seen in the last 15 years.”

Singleton said he did call Reed before running and got the answer anyone who knows Reed’s playbook would expect.

“He said to me, ‘Singleton, I respect you, and I wish you would not run,’” Singleton recounted. “His commitment is to Randy Kelley, and I’m okay with that. And I knew that he would be. … If I walk in that door and you beat me 99 to one, I’m gonna still be the Democrat that I am today.”

The pulling has started anyway.

“I know people already been trying to pull me on one side here. I got phone calls last night — ‘I need you to support this, I need you to support that,’” he said. “Whatever your fights are, let’s set them aside … let’s go into November as one, as a Democrat, and let’s win, and then we can talk about those things.”

That is a play Alabama Democrats have not once managed to run successfully in the modern era.