If there is one thing the 2026 Alabama legislative session taught us, it is this: The Alabama Republican Party has gerrymandered itself into a nightmare.
Throughout this past session—a session that was supposed to be relatively quiet and mundane as lawmakers prepared for elections—there was almost constant fighting. And all of it was of the intra-party variety.
Oh, sure, there were a handful of R vs. D dustups, but nothing particularly nasty or noteworthy. Instead, the real fireworks came from Republicans fighting other Republicans.
Over everything.
There were secret recordings and not-so-secret recordings. There were threats and nasty arguments. There was backstabbing and even a little front-stabbing.
It got so bad that some Republican executive committee members were actually pushing to boot House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter – a guy who should be one of, if not the, most powerful people in the party.
The perils of one-party rule in American politics.
This is the way it always is, if truth be told. Doesn’t matter if it’s Democrats or Republicans. Eventually, when one party maintains absolute power for an extended period of time, the infighting begins.
It has to. This system we have is built on conflict and compromise. It is sustained by ambition and ego.
To move up in American politics, you need someone to fight in order to deliver something to the people you represent. So you can then be trusted to represent even more people. Rinse. Repeat.
As such, what ultimately occurs is that the party in complete control does certain things in the ignorant hope that they can maintain that control and all will be well and good. One of the things that the ruling party almost always does is gerrymander—carve out ridiculously shaped districts that are designed to give incumbents an edge and remove all mystery from the voting process.
In Alabama, in 90 percent of elections, we know the outcome the day the ballots are printed. Because the Democrats don’t have a prayer in most Republican districts and the Republicans have little chance in the handful of Democratic districts.
Voter enthusiasm is squashed. Turnout is down. Elections are mostly decided in primaries, where reliably partisan voters become the ultimate deciders.
The candidates keep playing to those voters, pushing the rhetoric and promises farther and farther to the extreme edges. Playing the I’m-more-conservative-than-you games.
Before long, at least in Alabama, you wind up with a legislature dominated by Republicans, but a Republican Party fractured by extremism. Where every moderate Republican decision is treated as Dem-loving, woke weakness.
That sort of radical right-wing approach to governance is made even worse because it is most often rooted in religion, which carries moral indignation and the notion that anything the far right wants to do—and anyone they want to hate—is approved by God.
The problem, however, for the average Alabamian is that despite all of the rhetoric and all of the infighting and all of the headlines generated, there are still precious few lawmakers actually working for them.
I mean, look at the stuff that ALGOP lawmakers were fighting about. Closing primaries? Has that kept you up at night? Ever had a serious discussion with your spouse over how you’re going to pay the open primaries bill?
Controlling who sits on the state archives board? Again, has that been a big worry for you? What about renaming the Gulf of Mexico? Or how about banning chemtrails? Or putting the Ten Commandments in schools?
None of that actually solves a single real problem in this state. It doesn’t address the health care crisis. It doesn’t do a thing about affordability. It doesn’t put more money in the pockets of working-class Alabamians.
In the meantime, the other side of that intra-party fight is busy placating big business, at the expense of all of us. While everyone was rightly focused on the whole PSC-power ordeal, did y’all catch the fact that ALGOP lawmakers shoved through a bill that makes it much, much easier to further pollute our already polluted waterways and lands?
Did you notice that we still don’t have an overtime tax break after they killed it a year ago? That they didn’t have a single bill originating with a GOP sponsor that lowered prices on anything? That there wasn’t a single idea about expanding health care options, much less making it affordable? That we still didn’t get the opportunity to vote on gambling or a lottery?
Instead, it was Alabama Democrats who offered actual solutions and attempted to address real issues. Go and check the record on that. I’m not wrong.
And all of that makes that long, drawn-out battle for control within the Alabama Republican Party a bit confusing.
Because that’s a lot of fighting over the power to do nothing.
