Alabama is a one-party, ruby red Republican state. This is a given in both state and national political races – especially presidentially, as you saw earlier this week.
The proof is in the pudding. With Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump’s triumphant conquest of our state on Tuesday, that makes 12 straight Presidential races in which the GOP candidate has carried our state. Trump has carried Alabama by more than 60% in the last three Presidential cycles – 2016, 2020, and now 2024.
Prior to the Civil War, conservatives in Alabama were Whigs. The Whigs were well-heeled former Virginians and were slave owners. They settled in the Black Belt around the Alabama river. These gentlemen, even though small in population, monopolized and controlled state politics.
The Republican Party came to power as the party that abolished slavery. They enacted an extremely vengeful and devastating reconstruction upon the white people of the South, both rich and poor, slave owner or yeoman farmer. The radical Republicans did not discriminate. They took their vengeance out on all white people. Reconstruction lasted 11 years, 1866-1876. It cemented an inherent hatred towards the national Republican Party. Alabama and our sister Southern states swore allegiance to the Democratic Party. Alabama became and remained a totally Democratic state for almost 90 years, 1876 to 1964.
This Democratic loyalty was instilled by the yoke of Reconstruction. This loathing towards radical Republican rule was handed down from one generation to the next. Many a dying southern grandfather told their children and grandchildren on their deathbed, “One, don’t ever sell the family farm, and secondly, don’t ever vote for any damn Republican.” That is why you would hear old people saying, “My grandaddy would roll over in his grave if I voted for a Republican.” That is how the term “yellow dog” Democrat began. It was said that if a yellow dog were the Democratic candidate, he would win. This Democratic solidarity really made Alabama a no party state because all the activity was in one party and primary.
Alabamians cared very little about national politics or presidential elections between 1876-1964. They just voted for the Democrat in a perfunctory manner. The Democratic candidate for President carried Alabama in every election during those 90 years, but that all changed 60 years ago, today.
It changed presidentially and congressionally in the 1964 Southern Goldwater Landslide. We started voting Republican for national offices that year and have not looked back. The GOP captured the Governor’s office in 1986. It has been that way for now close to 40 years.
Folks, when we change, we really change. We do not do things halfway. Sixty years ago, every statewide official was a Democrat. Every state judge was a Democrat. Our entire congressional delegation was Democratic, and our legislature was unanimously Democratic. We were a Democratic state more out of tradition than philosophy.
Today, we are arguably one of the most Republican states in America from top to bottom. Since 1964, there have been 16 presidential elections, and Alabama has voted for the GOP nominee in 14 of those 16 contests, including this year’s Trump win in our state.
Jimmy Carter is the only Democrat that has carried Alabama in the last 60 years, and that was by a very slim margin in 1976, almost 50 years ago. George Wallace and his American Independent Party won the state in 1968. Therefore, the American Independent Party has won as many presidential contests in the Heart of Dixie as the Democratic Party has over the past 60 years.
Our Congressional delegation reflects a Republican dominance. Every statewide elected official in Alabama is a Republican. Republican control of Alabama politics today is so dominant that we can safely be called a one-party state, again.
The Republican Party nomination for statewide office, today, is tantamount to election. This Republican dominance of Alabama will continue unabated in the Heart of Dixie for the foreseeable future.
The more things change, the more they remain the same.
See you next week.
Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist. His weekly column appears in over 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years in the state legislature. Steve may be reached at [email protected].
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