NDRC Statement on Alabama’s Congressional Gerrymander Proposal

Washington, D.C. — Today, John Bisognano, President of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC), issued the following statement in response to the new congressional gerrymander that is being pushed by the Republican-led Alabama Legislature:

“Despite remaining under a court order that bars Alabama from redrawing its congressional map and that voters have already cast ballots in the state’s congressional primary elections, Alabama Republicans are desperately and shamelessly moving to pave the way for reversion to a map that robs Black voters of equal access to representation in the U.S. House. 

“What is happening in Alabama is not happening in a vacuum. Across the South, states are rushing to suppress Black voting power now that they mistakenly believe they can get away with it. The Alabama legislature’s fevered rush to diminish Black voting power in their state is clear proof that protections once afforded under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act remain vital still today. Alabamians across the state are rising up in protest to this immoral power grab—their voices must not be silenced.”

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND:

Black Alabamians make up nearly 30 percent of the state’s total population. But the proposed gerrymander limits them to electing a candidate of their choice in just one of the state’s seven congressional districts. The current Alabama map resulted from the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Allen v. Milligan, which upheld and enforced Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The proposed gerrymander is nearly identical to the gerrymander the state of Alabama enacted in 2021 prior to the Milligan decision, which included just one majority-Black district. 

On the proposed gerrymander, voters in Alabama’s current second congressional district—which is a Black opportunity district that includes Mobile and Montgomery, both of which are majority Black cities, as well as several counties in the state’s Black Belt region—are cracked into three districts. Here’s how: 

  • 7th Congressional District: Black voters in Washington, Clarke, Monroe and Conecuh counties are packed into the proposed 7th congressional district, which would be the lone majority-Black district for the state of Alabama on this gerrymander. This district is represented by Congresswoman Terri Sewell.  
  • 2nd Congressional District: Several Black Belt counties—Butler, Lowndes, Montgomery, Crenshaw, Pike, Macon, Bullock, Barbour, and Russell counties—are paired with predominantly rural white counties to the south that stretch down to the state’s border with the Florida panhandle, as well as portions of Elmore County to the north of Montgomery County. 
  • 1st Congressional District:  All of Mobile County, including the city of Mobile, is now paired with predominantly white, rural counties that border the Florida panhandle, stretching as far east as Covington County. 

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