On Tuesday, Andrew Sneed bested Candice Duvieilh in the Democratic primary runoff for Alabama’s 5th Congressional District, making him the state Democratic Party’s official nominee.
According to the unofficial results Tuesday night, Sneed received more than 75 percent of votes case, while Duvieilh received around 22 percent of the total. At the time of publication, around 95 percent of votes had been counted.
“Words cannot adequately express how humbled and grateful I am for the tremendous hard work and dedication of all those throughout North Alabama who came together to energize our community to get out the vote,” Sneed wrote in a statement after the Associated Press and other organizations called the election in his favor.
“As I’ve said before, this is truly the most consequential election of our lifetime,” he continued. “For far too long, North Alabama has not had real representation in Congress or, for that matter, a representative that will even hold a public town hall due to the politics of division. It’s time to chart a new path forward and ensure that every voice is heard.”
In the first round of the primary, Sneed received 42 percent of the votes cast, while Duvieilh received 35.7 percent. A third candidate, Jeremy Devito, got 22.3 percent and was eliminated. Because neither Sneed nor Duvieilh won a majority in May, they both proceeded to Tuesday’s runoff election.
Sneed will face Republican Congressman Dale Strong in the general election this November. First elected to Congress in 2022, Strong went unchallenged in 2024. And in the year he was first elected, Strong received over two-thirds of the vote.
A small business owner in Huntsville, Sneed has sought to focus on the issues facing Huntsville families and largely dismissed the “culture wars.” During a December interview with APR, Sneed claimed that Strong “intentionally divides people.”
“I think he makes disastrous decisions for—and really votes—not just decisions but votes against the interest of this district time and again,” Sneed said. He was also endorsed by the Alabama Democratic Conference, the influential predominantly Black political caucus, earlier this month.
On the other hand, Duvieilh foregrounded her work in education during her campaign for the Democratic nomination. “If we do not have a strong, equitable and fair education system in place, the rest of our society is going to suffer,” she told APR during a January interview.
Her “classroom experience” and “administrative understanding [of] how schools function” would help her create that system, Duvieilh said.
APR reported during the lead-up to Tuesday’s runoff election that public voting records appeared to contract Duvieilh’s claims that she had voted for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.
However, Duvieilh told APR she believed the records were incorrect and implied that the ballots she and her husband cast may have been mishandled.
While Democrats hope to make inroads, Strong will be favored in November given the historic Republican lean of the 5th District.
