ONLY ON 8: Political Analyst Steve Flowers previews August 11 special primaries
ONLY ON 8 (WAKA) – Action 8 Political Analyst Steve Flowers previews the August 11 special primaries that will be held in some Alabama congressional districts.
Because district lines were recently changed, the special primaries are needed in Congressional Districts 1, 2, 6 and 7, which cover nearly all of the Action 8 viewing area except for Tallapoosa and Lee counties. Some voters are now in different districts than they were before.
Flowers told Action 8’s Glenn Halbrooks that there is little excitement about these primaries and turnout is expected to be extremely low, with many people not even knowing that there are races to decide. Because these are district races, voters will only get to vote in one race, the race that corresponds to the district where they live.
The most crowded race is the Republican primary for U.S. House District 2, which features six candidates. Flowers believes that Rhett Marques has the edge. He is a state representative from Enterprise and has endorsements from President Trump, U.S. Sen. Katie Britt (R-Alabama) and from the Alabama Farmers Federation. Marques is the only one of the candidates who’s been elected to office, Flowers notes.
Republicans are hopeful that the redrawn district lines will help them win back the District 2 seat from Democratic U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures, who was elected in 2024 with the lines that were put in place for that election year. But Flowers doesn’t believe this will be an automatic victory for the Republican nominee. He says with control of the U.S. House so close between the two parties, he expects a lot of money will be spent in the November general election by both sides.
In District 7, two Republicans will be facing each other to see who’ll move on to battle Democratic U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell in November. Sewell was first elected in 2010. Flowers says this is a strongly Democratic district and Sewell will be the likely winner.
As for the other two districts, former Republican Congressman Jerry Carl is trying to win back his seat in District 1, and in District 6, Republican Congressman Gary Palmer has opposition as he tries for another term.
CLICK HERE to see the complete ballot for the August 11 special primaries.
