By Brian Lyman | Editor
Good morning to the weekend crew. Just a reminder that there is an election on Tuesday. You can check your voter status and the location of your polling place here.
U.S. Sen. and Republican gubernatorial nominee Tommy Tuberville speaking at the Alabama Republican Party's Summer Dinner on July 31, 2026, at the Renaissance Hotel in Montgomery, Alabama. (Anna Barrett/Alabama Reflector)
ELECTIONS 2026
By Anna Barrett
Republican gubernatorial nominee Tommy Tuberville is favored to win election on Tuesday, and has released an ambitious agenda for his time in office. But back-and-forth messaging during his campaign have left some uncertainty on how he would govern. Some plans, including expansion of the CHOOSE Act, the state’s effective voucher program, could run into looming fiscal challenges for state government.
Voters in Alabama's 2nd Congressional District will choose between state Rep. Rhett Marques, R-Enterprise (left), and incumbent U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures, D-Montgomery, (right) in a newly drawn district. (Figures photo by Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector; Marques photo and graphic by Anna Barrett/Alabama Reflector)
ELECTIONS 2026
By Anna Barrett and Andrea Tinker
Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District, redrawn by the Republican-controlled Legislature after the Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act earlier this year, has drawn national attention and investments and by one measure has gotten tighter over the last week. U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures, the Democratic nominee, and Rep. Rhett Marques, the GOP nominee, have traded attacks on afforadbility, taxes, and healthcare in the district.
Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville, speaks at a press conference on Feb. 12, 2025 in Montgomery, Alabama as Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey listens in the background. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
By Ralph Chapoco
In the first public break between Gov. Kay Ivey and legislative leaders over a multibillion prison construction project, House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville, sent a letter to Ivey Thursday criticizing cost overruns on an Elmore County prison whose price tag has reached $1.25 billion and calling for a halt to construction on an Escambia facility. Ivey rejected the call, saying her administration was committed to seeing the project through.
ICYMI
Commentary: The lasting damage of anti-transgender hysteria | Brian Lyman, Alabama Reflector
Former Tuberville player joins Doug Jones on campaign trail in Auburn | Anna Barrett, Alabama Reflector
Phillip Ensler, John Wahl meet in lieutenant governor debate | Andrea Tinker, Alabama Reflector
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