With 9 of 10 precincts reporting, unofficial results Tuesday night showed that Tuscaloosa city councilor Norman Crow won the House District 63 special election, having received over 80 percent more votes than the Democratic nominee, Judith Taylor.
The vacancy that the special election was held to fill was created when Representative Cynthia Almond, R-Tuscaloosa, was appointed president of the state Public Service Commission by Governor Kay Ivey.
“THANK YOU!” Crow posted to his Facebook page after the preliminary results had been published. “Results are in, and I am honored to serve House District 63 in Montgomery. I will listen to every concern and always have an open door. Let’s get to work for this community!”
Crow, in addition to representing Tuscaloosa’s District 3 since 2021, has also served stints on the Alabama Workforce Council and the Alabama Commission on Higher Education. Taylor is currently the chair of the Tuscaloosa County Democratic Party.
In a pre-election Q&A with Ryan Phillips of Tuscaloosa Patch, Crow said that “infrastructure improvements to our district will be a top priority of mine if elected.” He also stated that he planned to support increased education funding, mental health programs, and workforce development.
Taylor mentioned supporting expanding job training programs as well, but also highlighted that she would support expanding Medicaid, “rethinking the CHOOSE Act,” and protecting workers’ right to organize.
While the district historically leans towards Republicans—in 2022, Republican candidate Cynthia Almond received almost twice the votes of her Democratic opponent—the margin of Crow’s victory appears likely to have been exacerbated by anemic turnout in more Democratic precincts. One precinct, the Belk Activity Center, had just a single vote cast here.
In total, barely over 7 percent of registered voters in the district cast a vote on Tuesday, with fewer than 200 votes cast in the University Mall and University of Alabama Student Center precincts combined. While Taylor did win a supermajority of votes cast in both of those precincts, Crow was able to easily compensate for this by outrunning Taylor by hundreds of votes in other precincts with higher turnout.
“This was my first experience as a candidate, and I don’t think I did badly at all,” Taylor told APR in an election night email. “There were several factors that I thought were disadvantages for this election. One was the time the governor set the election. 13 days into the new year, on opening day of the legislative session and in the harsh winter weather. The fact that six weeks were devoted to celebrating holidays and in two weeks were spent to dodging rain.”
“The good news is that the election in November 2026 will not have those disadvantages,” she noted, apparently confirming she plans to run for the seat again during the regularly scheduled elections later this year. “Now I have some experience as a candidate and will learn how to improve my campaign efforts.”
Crow’s win on Tuesday will open up a vacancy on the Tuscaloosa City Council. During the 2025 election cycle, he had run unopposed. Per the city’s charter, the council will now have to call for a special election to be held to fill the vacancy.
