Alabama’s 5th Congressional District House Race Winner

Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville and Democrat Doug Jones escalated their fight for Alabama governor this week, trading accusations over socialism, public education and public safety. In a Mobile radio interview, Tuberville labeled Democrats socialists, tied Jones to figures like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Zohran Mamdani and Stacey Abrams, and called public schools "government schools" that fail to teach basics while defending the CHOOSE Act as a way to force competition. Jones rejected the socialist label, pointed to his record passing bipartisan bills in the Senate, and said he would phase out the CHOOSE Act to redirect funding to public schools.

Jones also renewed his push for a debate, accusing Tuberville of avoiding unscripted questions, a challenge Tuberville did not accept, instead citing his 2020 Senate win over Jones. On crime, Tuberville pledged more troopers and "law and order" without naming specific communities, while Jones countered by emphasizing his experience as a federal prosecutor. Abrams is set to campaign with Jones in Huntsville, fueling Tuberville's effort to nationalize the race.

A federal trial opens Nov. 30 in Huntsville over the Department of Justice's 2020 lawsuit alleging that Alabama's men's prisons are unconstitutionally violent and unsanitary. U.S. District Judge Harold D. Mooty III, without a jury, will decide whether conditions including frequent inmate-on-inmate killings, roughly 30 reported sexual assaults monthly, overcrowding and excessive force by staff amount to cruel and unusual punishment. Prosecutors call the system chronically indifferent to known risks; the state says it has made substantial reforms, including hiring more guards and revising use-of-force policies. The two sides have filed roughly 450 court records, 14,000 potential exhibits, and hundreds of witnesses. The judge expects the trial to last about six weeks.

Alabama's redrawn 2nd Congressional District has become one of the nation's most closely watched House races. Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures, who won the seat in 2024 when it was a Black-opportunity district, now faces Republican state Rep. Rhett Marques after a court-ordered redistricting process made the district whiter, more rural, and carried by Trump by roughly 14 points in 2024. That shift makes Marques the favorite, but handicappers like Cook Political Report and Sabato's Crystal Ball still rate the race "likely" or merely "lean" Republican rather than safe.

Turnout among Black voters in Montgomery, the district's largest population center, is seen as decisive for Figures, while Marques leans on the heavily Republican Wiregrass region and an endorsement from Sen. Katie Britt. Figures leads in cash on hand despite similar overall fundraising totals. One recent partisan poll showed the race tied. Analysts say the outcome could help determine whether Democrats retake the House and could expand a bloc of Southern Republicans elected under newly redrawn, less minority-protective maps.

U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures told the Alabama Democratic Conference that his reelection bid in Alabama's 2nd Congressional District hinges on turnout in Montgomery County and surrounding Black Belt counties. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling in April weakened part of the Voting Rights Act, allowing Alabama to revert to a 2023 legislative map that removed Figures' hometown of Mobile from the district and extended it into the heavily Republican Wiregrass region. The district's Black voting age population dropped from about 49 percent to just under 40 percent, and the seat would have favored Donald Trump by 14 points in 2024.

Figures, who won the seat in 2024 with 54.6 percent of the vote, faces Republican state Rep. Rhett Marques. He said Montgomery County, roughly 31 percent of registered voters, could make up 40 percent of turnout with strong mobilization. National Democrats have launched a six-figure ad buy, while Trump and Senate candidate Barry Moore have urged Republicans to turn out for Marques, calling the seat critical to the House majority.

Control of the U.S. House this fall hinges on a map of roughly three dozen to 50 competitive races, with Democrats needing a net gain of just three seats to win the majority. Historically, the president's party has gained House seats in a midterm only twice since 1946, and Democrats are favored by generic-ballot polling and President Trump's low approval ratings, though analysts note Republican gerrymandering has made more Democratic-held seats competitive, offsetting some of that advantage. GOP leaders point to legislative wins and plan to tie Democrats to the party's left flank.

Key races include New York's 17th District (Mike Lawler vs. Cait Conley), Long Island's 3rd and 4th Districts, New Jersey's 7th, Ohio's 9th and 7th, California's 22nd and 48th, Arizona's 1st, and Virginia's 2nd. A House flip would make Hakeem Jeffries speaker and could block Trump's agenda while enabling investigative oversight.

Texas put Ker'Sean Ramey, 41, to death by lethal injection Wednesday evening at the Huntsville Unit, a week after co-defendant LeJames Norman was executed for the same crime. Both men were convicted in the 2005 fatal shootings of Samuel Roberts, Tiffani Peacock, and Celso Lopez during an attempted robbery at the victims' home in Edna, Texas, southwest of Houston. Prosecutors said Ramey and Norman believed there was cocaine in the house, found none, and killed the three occupants. Norman testified against Ramey, who was tried first by a jury with no Black jurors.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Ramey's final appeal hours before the execution; his attorneys had raised claims of racial discrimination in jury selection and ineffective trial counsel, which courts rejected. In a final statement, Ramey apologized to his children and expressed gratitude to fellow inmates. Ramey is the sixth person executed in Texas this year, with three more scheduled in coming months. Nationally, 28 executions have now been carried out in 2026, with Florida leading the total.

Republican gubernatorial nominee Sen. Tommy Tuberville argued Alabama voters should elect him governor because President Trump would not extend the same support to Democratic nominee Doug Jones. "He's not going to help Doug Jones," Tuberville said on "The Jeff Poor Show," adding "that's not going to happen."

Tuberville credited Trump with directing an estimated $20 to $30 billion toward Alabama's economy, though he did not detail which programs or projects made up that figure. He said he hopes to keep working with Trump during the final two years of his presidency on jobs and federal investment in the state. Tuberville did not clarify whether a Jones win would mean Alabama losing federal assistance. He also framed the broader 2026 midterms as a referendum on Trump's agenda, telling voters that backing Republicans down the ballot would determine how much support the president retains in Washington. The Jones campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

President Donald Trump drew a large crowd to the Mitchell Center in Mobile, Alabama, returning to the city where he held an early breakout rally during his 2016 campaign. The stop kicked off a broader fall campaign push ahead of the November midterms, with the White House planning near-daily appearances in competitive states.

Trump used the rally to back Senator Tommy Tuberville in his gubernatorial bid against former Democratic Senator Doug Jones, Representative Barry Moore's campaign for Tuberville's soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat, and state Representative Rhett Marques, who is running for Alabama's redrawn 2nd Congressional District currently held by Democratic Representative Shomari Figures. Republicans see the seat as a pickup opportunity following redistricting.

Earlier in the day, Governor Kay Ivey and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy broke ground on the $3.2 billion Mobile River Bridge and Bayway project. Strategists noted the rally's location also extends media reach into the conservative Florida Panhandle, reinforcing turnout momentum for Republicans heading into election day.

With Alabama's Nov. 3 election 10 days out, forecasters have shifted two marquee races. Sabato's Crystal Ball moved the U.S. Senate contest between Republican Tommy Tuberville and Democrat Doug Jones from "Safe Republican" to "Likely Republican," citing polls showing Tuberville leading by just over 10 points. Cook Political Report upgraded Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures' odds of retaining his U.S. House seat against Republican state Rep. Rhett Marques, moving that race from "Likely Republican" to "Leans Republican."

The campaigns have grown contentious: Tuberville, also running for governor, released a policy outline and faced backlash over a proposed state-level DOGE effort and comments on pastors and migration; Jones condemned an AI-driven attack page funded by the state GOP. Both House candidates called for a Republican state lawmaker facing human trafficking-related charges to resign.