The founding of the Alabama GOP (1854–1867)

When the Republican Party was first organized in 1854 as an anti-slavery party, it did not compete in southern states such as Alabama. In its first three presidential elections (including 1864, in which Alabama did not participate due to the Civil War), the party did not even distribute ballots in Alabama for its presidential candidate. (At the time, ballots were not printed by the government, but were distributed by parties for their supporters to drop into ballot boxes). After the Civil War and following Alabama's readmission to the union in 1868, Alabama was a Republican dominated state for much of the Reconstruction period due to a combination of factors including its support from north Alabama unionists, poor white farmers who had never owned slaves, and the newly enfranchised black voters. Republican Ulysses S. Grant carried the state in both the 1868 and 1872 presidential elections.

One of the organizations that became the initial Alabama GOP, the Union League, first came into north Alabama in 1863 as counties fell back under Union control during The Civil War. In early 1867, local Republicans gathered in several different meetings around the state. The first was in Moulton, on January 8 and 9 in Lawrence County, then March meetings in both Huntsville and Decatur, a gathering on March 25 in Montgomery, and then May 1 in Mobile, all for the purpose of organizing an early summer state convention to create a state Republican Party. In a simultaneous meeting with the Union League, the Republican Party of Alabama was initially organized on June 4–5, 1867. That first state convention was held in the capital city of Montgomery in the chambers of the Alabama House of Representatives. That convention was called the Union Republican Convention and consisted of 150 delegates, of whom 100 were black. Alabama Governor Robert M. Patton spoke to the convention. Francis W. Sykes of Lawrence County was elected as chairman pro tempore, and Judge William Hugh Smith of Randolph County was named permanent chairman of the convention. The convention's delegates were mostly from two groups, the Freedmen's Bureau (which included and/or represented most of Alabama's black citizens) and the Union League which represented about the 1/3 of north Alabama's white citizens who had remained as loyalists in the Civil War or had otherwise opposed secession in 1861.

The convention adopted what was considered a liberal platform for the time including "equal rights for all men without distinction of color." The convention also endorsed the platform of the National Republican Party and supported free public education for all Alabamians. The convention established the first State Republican Executive Committee of 24 members. It included 12 prominent native Alabamians whom had mostly been unionists. The other members included three carpetbaggers, five African-Americans, and four otherwise unaffiliated and unidentified individuals.^[5]

Early history (1868–1890)

In 1868, William Hugh Smith was elected to a single two-year term as the state's first Republican governor. That same year saw Republican Andrew Applegate elected as the first-ever lieutenant governor of Alabama under the state's newly adopted constitution of 1867. That first post Civil War legislature under the new constitution was elected in February, 1868, with a 100-member House of Representatives (two-year terms) composed of 97 Republicans and 3 Democrats. The State Senate (four-year terms) was even more lopsided, with a single Democrat to its 32 Republicans.^[6] The 1868 legislature also included 27 Black Republicans, the first minority members in Alabama history. All but one were members of the House of Representatives. That same year Benjamin F. Royal (1868–1875) of Bullock County became the first black state senator in Alabama history.^[7] That Republican-controlled legislature passed a resolution on November 24, 1869, approving the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing black men the right to vote in Alabama. Governor Smith was defeated for re-election in 1870, garnering 49.5% of the vote and losing by a margin of just 1,439 votes. Although the Senate was not up for re-election that year, Democrats retook the House with 57 seats to the Republicans 38 seats, of which 19 were African-American Republicans.^[8]

After Republicans spent a single term out of the governor's office, David P. Lewis was elected as the state's second GOP governor, winning 89,020 to 78,524 over his Democratic opponent. He served from 1872 to 1874.^[9] His GOP lieutenant governor was Alexander McKinstry.^[10] During Governor Lewis' term, disputed election results produced two competing legislatures, one with a Democratic majority and the other a Republican majority. After this dispute was ultimately settled, Republicans had a 2-seat majority in the House and Democrats a 1-seat majority in the Senate. Again, this 1872 legislature included 24 African-American Republican members with 5 being in the Senate.^[11] The 1874 legislature would see only 13 Republican Senators and House membership at 40. However, this legislature would hit a high-water mark for minority representation with 33 African-American Republicans. The 1876 election would result in 18 members (7 of which were African-American) being elected to the House and only 4 Republicans to the Senate. Republicans would be reduced to just 8 members in the House in the 1878 election. Following the 1880 election Republicans held only a single seat in the Alabama House with the election of Benjamin M. Long from Walker County.^[8][12] In fact, Walker County had a strong Republican Party for much of the remainder of the 19th century.

Republican representation in the legislature and other public offices had declined rapidly after the 1875 Constitution was adopted. That document began the process of restricting black voter participation and expanding all forms of Jim Crow laws. Further orchestrated efforts at voter intimidation, lynchings, vote fraud, and the inability of differing Republican factions to work together all doomed the party to long-term failure. After the 1878 election no black, and few Republicans, would be elected to the legislature again until the 1970s.

During this same Reconstruction period three African-American Republicans were elected to the United States Congress from Alabama. They were Benjamin Turner (42nd Congress), James T. Rapier (43rd Congress) and Jeremiah Haralson (44th Congress). However, the first Republican Congressmen from Alabama were elected in 1868. They were Charles W. Buckley (40th and 41st Congress'), Francis W. Kellogg, Benjamin W. Norris, Charles W. Pierce, John B. Callis, and Thomas Haughey who would be assassinated in Alabama while giving a speech. The first Republican Senators from Alabama were Willard Warner (1868–1871) and George E. Spencer (1868–1879)^[13] who were both elected by the legislature before adoption of the Seventeenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Alabama Republicans and the Populists (1890–1916)

By the late 1890s, a coalition between the Populist Party and the Republican Party often produced "fusion tickets", that combined forces in several subsequent elections to win control of several of Alabama hill counties in this era. They were most dominant in Marshall, St. Clair, Shelby, and Chilton Counties. Between 1892 and 1932 Shelby County was usually closely contested under the leadership of A. P. Longshore. Marshall County elected Republican Thomas Kennamer in 1896 to the Alabama House of Representatives. DeKalb County voted in 1896 for GOP Presidential candidate William McKinley. Chilton County was decidedly Republican between 1900 and 1912, including electing Lewis W. Reynolds as a Republican Probate Judge in 1904 and again in 1916. S. J. Petree was elected as a Republican Probate Judge in Franklin County in 1910; C. C. Scheuing was elected Cullman County Sheriff in 1910; J. B. Sloan was elected as a Republican to the State Senate from a district made up of Blount, Cullman, and Winston Counties. In 1910, J. J. Curtis of Winston County became the first Republican Circuit Judge (for Winston & Walker Counties) in Alabama since Reconstruction.^[12]

In this time period, in the 54th United States Congress, two brothers, Truman H. Aldrich (1896–1897) and William F. Aldrich (1896–1897), both served as Republicans. William Aldrich also served in the 55th Congress (1898–99) and the 56th Congress (1900–01) with the unusual distinction of having been seated all three times in disputed elections ultimately decided by Congress itself.^[13] After William Aldrich left Congress in 1901, no Republican would be elected again until 1964.

The Goldwater Landslide and the modern GOP (1962–1972)

The modern Republican Party in Alabama traces its roots back to the election of John Grenier as State Party Chairman in 1962.^[16] That year Grenier with the support of the Alabama Young Republicans forced long-time Chairman Claude O. Vardaman into retirement without a contest. Grenier, along with a new generation of political activists played leading roles in re-organizing the party and moving beyond the "Post Office Republican" era. Determined to change the focus back to winning elections they recruited serious candidates for Congress in 1962. That year they nearly toppled U.S. Senator Lister Hill with the candidacy of James D. Martin^[17] in a controversial race that Republicans have always maintained was "stolen" in the dead of the night. Two years later most of those same candidates for Congress would run again in 1964, resulting in a Republican sweep of five of Alabama's eight congressional seats with victories by Jack Edwards, Glenn Andrews, James D. Martin, John Buchanan and Bill Dickinson.^[17] Martin would give up his congressional seat two years later in an unsuccessful run for Governor against Lurleen Wallace, but the GOP would hold three of the congressional seats for decades to come. That election, commonly referred to in Alabama as "The Goldwater Landslide" would see the GOP win several dozen local offices. It also included the election of Probate Judges in Cullman County named Guy Hunt and Perry O. Hooper, Sr., in Montgomery County. Both would later go on to greater electoral successes. The 1964 election is credited as partially laying the foundations for Alabama's modern Republican Party. Among the party's other prominent officeholders in the period was George G. Siebels, Jr. who served two terms as Mayor of Birmingham from 1967 to 1975. In 1968, the party went through a nasty internal struggle for Alabama's seat on the Republican National Committee. John Grenier would lose that contest to Jim Martin. It would take many years to heal the rift the bitter race had caused between two old friends and their respective supporters in the party.

Statewide primary and the 1986 election (1972–2010)

In 1972, the state party made a historic change from a state convention nominating system for all candidates to having a statewide party primary. This allowed voters to directly choose all nominees for public and party offices with its main goal being to broaden public support for the party. It would only slowly have that desired effect. In 1978, the party would begin its long steady build-up to competing for seats in the legislature by winning a few seats in suburban Birmingham, Mobile, and Montgomery. In 1980, Jeremiah Denton became the first popularly elected Republican U. S. Senator in Alabama history after first winning that new statewide primary.

In 1982, Emory Folmar who would serve as Mayor of Montgomery (1977–1999) would make the party's first serious run for Governor since Martin in 1966. However, four years later in 1986, the wisdom of the change to a primary finally paid huge dividends for the GOP. Guy Hunt in a very unusual election would defeat the Democrat with 57% of the vote in the governor's race. Hunt had been chosen in a statewide primary and the Democrat's disqualified their nominee claiming he had "unfairly" won their primary. Voters rewarded the GOP by electing Guy Hunt. Hunt's election is widely viewed as effectively making Alabama a two-party state even though Republicans only made very modest legislative gains that year. The victory in the governor's race in 1986 was the first Republican win in a statewide constitutional office since Reconstruction, ending 114 years of Democratic control. Almost immediately the party became focused on winning the other statewide races (lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, state treasurer, state auditor, commissioner of agriculture and the Public Service Commission). In 1994, Perry O. Hooper, Sr. would defeat the incumbent Democratic chief justice of Alabama in another controversial race. That same year Republicans increased their total in the Alabama House of Representatives from 24 to 31 seats. Legislative membership continued to modestly climb each cycle and Republicans began winning other statewide offices. Republicans also won the state auditor's race and the secretary of state's office.

Republican strength (2010–present)

The move to GOP hegemony in the statewide offices occurred fairly quickly. In the November 2010 general election 136 years of Democratic control of the Alabama state legislature finally came to an end. That day, the GOP won large majorities in both chambers gaining 17 seats in the House and 11 in the State Senate. Within another two weeks four additional House seats moved to the GOP column as four self-styled conservatives bolted from the Democrats to the GOP just after they had been re-elected. Over the four-year term that followed another Democratic incumbent in the Senate would switch to being Republican as well as two more Democratic House members joining the GOP.

Also, in the 2010 general election Republicans swept all statewide races electing Robert J. Bentley as governor and Kay Ivey defeating the Democratic incumbent in the lieutenant governor's race. Republicans have won seven of the last eight governors races dating back to 1986. In 2012 Democrats lost the last statewide office still in their possession.

On April 10, 2017, Lt. Governor Kay Ivey became Alabama's 54th Governor upon the resignation of Robert J. Bentley. She became the second woman in Alabama history to hold the governorship.

As of 2021, Republicans hold both of Alabama's U.S. Senate seats and six of its seven seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Until December 2017, no Democrat had been elected to the U. S. Senate from the state since 1992 when Richard Shelby was elected to a second term. Shelby switched parties in 1994 and has since been re-elected easily. On December 12, 2017, Democrat Doug Jones defeated Republican Nominee Roy Moore in a special election, and took office on January 3, 2018.^[18] He was defeated by Tommy Tuberville on November 3, 2020.

The GOP has won six consecutive races for attorney general dating back to 1994. Six of the eight seats on the State Board of Education have elected Republicans. The Alabama Supreme Court, State Appeals Courts, and the rest of the state judiciary are moving decisively to Republican dominance. All nine Supreme Court justices and the ten judges who sit on the two statewide appellate courts are all Republicans. The partisan line-up of Circuit Judges following the 2016 general election consists of 82 Republicans and 66 Democrats. However, the Democrats judgeships are increasing limited to urban area as 34 of their 66 judgeships are in just Jefferson and Montgomery counties, while the GOP judgeships are spread among 38 different counties. As of October 2017, the GOP has a majority on the district courts with 62 seats to the Democrats 42. It is all the more dramatic when one considers that there were less than one half dozen GOP judges in Alabama prior to 1986.

As of March 1, 2016, of the 351 county commissioners in Alabama's 67 counties, the partisan breakdown is 183 Republicans and 168 Democrats. 37 Courthouses had Republican majority County Commissions, 28 had Democratic majorities, and 2 were evenly split.^[19] Of Alabama's 67 elected county school boards, the breakdown of seats heading into the 2016 General Election is 201 Republicans and 172 Democrats. However, the GOP has a majority on 33 of those boards and the Democrats also have a majority on 33 with one remaining board being evenly split in Pike County.

Members of Congress

Statewide Constitutional Offices

Republicans control all seven of the elected statewide offices:

• Governor: Kay Ivey
• Lieutenant Governor: Will Ainsworth
• Attorney General: Steve Marshall
• Secretary of State: John Merrill
• State Auditor: Jim Zeigler
• State Treasurer: Young Boozer
• Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries: Rick Pate

Statewide Statutory Offices

• Alabama Public Service Commission
• President - Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh
• Associate Commissioner - Place 1 - Jeremy H. Oden
• Associate Commissioner - Place 2 - Chris "Chip" Beeker, Jr.

Supreme Court of Alabama

• Chief Justice: Tom Parker
• Associate Justice: Brady E. Mendheim Jr.
• Associate Justice: Tommy Bryan
• Associate Justice: William Sellers
• Associate Justice: Jay Mitchell
• Associate Justice: Sarah Hicks Stewart
• Associate Justice: Greg Shaw
• Associate Justice: Kelli Wise
• Associate Justice: Michael F. Bolin

Alabama Court of Civil Appeals

• William C. Thompson, Presiding Judge
• Christy O. Edwards
• Matt Fridy
• Chad Arthur Hanson
• Terry A. Moore

Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals

• Mary Becker Windom, Presiding Judge
• Richard J. Minor
• J. Elizabeth Kellum
• J. Chris McCool
• James William "Bill" Cole

State Legislature

• President Pro Tempore of the Senate: Greg Reed
  • Senate Majority Leader: Clay Scofield
• Speaker of the House: Mac McCutcheon
  • Speaker Pro Tempore: Victor Gaston
  • House Majority Leader: Nathaniel Ledbetter

2014

Republicans held onto every seat in their legislative majority in 2014. In fact, increasing their numbers again in both chambers by defeating incumbent Democrats and winning open seats. They added three State Senate seats to hold 26 to just 8 Democrats and 1 Independent. In the House they added five more seats taking their majority to 72 seats for the GOP and just 33 for the Democrats. Yet as recently as 1977, there were no Republicans in either chamber of the Alabama Legislature until a lone seat in Mobile County was won that year in a special election. In 2014, Governor Bentley received almost 64% of the vote, leading a sweep of all statewide offices that also included the re-election of Lieutenant Governor Kay Ivey, the state's first female Republican Lieutenant Governor. GOP U.S. Senator, Jeff Sessions was unopposed for a fourth term, the first time in state history that Democrats failed to produce a nominee.

2016

The GOP Presidential nominee, Donald Trump, handily carried the state in 2016 taking 62.1% of the vote over Hillary Clinton. This was the 10th straight GOP Presidential nominee to carry the state; the last Democrats to carry Alabama were Jimmy Carter in 1976 and John F. Kennedy in 1960. However, Carter only received a plurality of the vote and Kennedy only received 5 of the 11 Electoral Votes of the state with the other six going to Virginia U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd. Senator Richard Shelby was re-elected that year as well as the state's six Republican congressman.

2018

In the November 6, 2018, general election, Republicans swept to an easy victory in every statewide contest with Governor Kay Ivey winning a full term with over 59% of the vote. Will Ainsworth received over 60% in the lieutenant governor's race and Tom Parker defeated Democrat Bob Vance, Jr. by more than 15 points in the race for Chief Justice. Democrats also lost another five seats in the Alabama House of Representatives making the new lineup to be 77 Republicans and 28 Democrats. Republicans held all their seats in both legislative chambers and also added one additional seat in the State Senate making the upper chambers partisan alignment to be 27 Republicans and 8 Democrats.^[20]

2020

In the November 3, 2020, general election, Alabama had a 62.19% turnout. President Trump carried Alabama with 62.15% of the vote, making it the 11th straight Republican presidential victory in the state. In the U.S. Senate race, Tommy Tuberville defeated U.S. Senator Doug Jones with 60.21%. Jones 39.62% was the weakest percentage for an incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator in Alabama since the direct election of U.S. Senators began in 1914. Republicans easily won all six U.S. Representative races in which they fielded candidates. This included 64.88% in the open 1st District with the election of Jerry Carl and the open 2nd District where GOP nominee, Barry Moore received 65.30%. Republicans won all the statewide races. This included both seats on the Alabama Supreme Court, two seats on the Court of Civil Appeals, and two seats on the Court of Criminal Appeals, in which the Democrats had failed to field candidates. Only in the statewide race for the Presidency of the Public Service Commission did the Democrats run a candidate. That individual lost to the incumbent Republican, Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh, who won a third term with 62.09% of the vote.^[20]

2022

In the November 8, 2022, general election Republicans swept all statewide elections. They maintained overwhelming control of the state legislature capturing 28 of the 35 State Senate seats and also held 77 of the 105 State House seats. Governor Kay Ivey won a second full term winning 66.93% of the vote over the Democrat nominee and a Libertarian candidate. Long-time U.S. Senator Richard Shelby did not seek re-election. He was succeeded by Katie Britt who captured 66.64% of the vote becoming the first woman "elected" from the state. Two women had served partial "unexpired terms" upon appointment by the governor. They were Maryon Pittman Allen (1978) and Dixie Bibb Graves (1937-38).

The Yellowhammer State can accurately be described as one of the more staunchly Republican states in the nation. According to the Gallup polling organization, Alabama is the eighth most Republican state in the nation.^[21]