Alabama Democratic Party Vice Chair Tabitha Isner posted a photo this week of a 2018 campaign check she says is proof of an old shakedown attempt by ADC chairman Joe Reed — and she says she still doesn’t know where the money went.
According to Isner, after her 2018 congressional campaign against U.S. Rep. Martha Roby secured the Alabama Democratic Conference’s endorsement, Reed called and told her she owed $15,000 for it.
When Isner pushed back, citing federal limits on contributions to a PAC, she says Reed told her to just write three separate $5,000 checks to three different PACs under his control. Isner says she agreed to write one — a $5,000 check to the Blacks in Government (BIG) PAC, dated June 4, 2018, which she posted a photo of alongside her account.
“The check was deposited, but the PAC never reported receiving that money,” Isner wrote, “so I don’t know where it went or how it was spent.”
A letter Yellowhammer News obtained in October 2018 backs up the broad strokes of Isner’s account. The letter, sent by Reed to Democratic candidates statewide, demanded a “fair share” payment of $25,000 for a get-out-the-vote operation and warned candidates that withholding the money was “political folly” carrying “grave risk” to their campaigns.
Isner had also told The New York Times Magazine at the time that Reed sought $15,000 from her campaign specifically — and questions about the legality of writing a check directly to Reed’s organization were already circulating then, too.
Reed has not responded publicly to Isner’s latest post.
Isner surfaced the check as part of a longer video in which she said she “generally preferred the role of party cheerleader” and hasn’t spoken much publicly about her relationship with Reed and ADP Chairman Randy Kelley — but that Alabama Democrats deserve to “understand why the party is the way it is” heading into 2026. I
It’s the latest chapter in a running feud: in 2023, Isner called an ADP executive committee meeting a “sham” after party leadership, at Reed’s direction, stripped voting power from the youth, LGBTQ and disabled caucuses. Kelley was separately reported to have told Isner to “be quiet, girl” during a contentious meeting that same year.
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Reed, who chairs the ADC and the party’s Minority Affairs Committee, has long been one of the most powerful — and most controversial — figures in Alabama Democratic politics, with a running list of clashes that also includes former U.S. Sen. Doug Jones. Jones has called for Reed and Kelley to “just retire,” accusing the pair of running the party as their own fiefdom.
Isner is currently the Democratic nominee in the 2026 race for State Senate District 26, one of the more competitive state Senate contests on the fall ballot following court-ordered redistricting. She’ll face Republican incumbent State Sen. Will Barfoot on November 3.
But an unreported $5,000 campaign check, made public by his own party’s sitting vice chair, is a different kind of allegation than a personality clash — and one that raises a straightforward question Reed has yet to answer publicly: what happened to the money.
