Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey called the Legislature into a special session on Friday, May 1, 2026, two days after the Supreme Court's 6-3 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, so the state could switch congressional maps if the courts lifted the order requiring its current one. That map, which includes two Democrat-held seats, came out of Voting Rights Act litigation in 2023 (Allen v. Milligan), and the court had ruled that Alabama could not alter it again before 2030. The session convened Monday, May 4.
Two paths were on the table, according to Democracy Docket: revert to the Legislature's 2023 map, which would likely leave one Black-majority Democratic district, or draw a new map likely to make all seven districts Republican. House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter and Senate President Pro Tem Garlan Gudger said in a joint statement that “we have a responsibility to give our state a fighting chance to send seven Republican members to Congress.” Democracy Docket described that as an aim to eliminate both seats held by Black Democrats. When the session ended, Ledbetter called the court-imposed map “nothing more than a racially gerrymandered disgrace that does not represent the conservative values held by Alabamians,” and Gudger thanked senators for working to “do our part to help President Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson, and the Republican Party maintain control of Congress for the next several years.”
The state's May 19 primary went ahead on the old map while the cases were pending in the U.S. Supreme Court and the 11th Circuit, and Black voters challenging the map asked the Supreme Court to deny Alabama's request because voting was already underway. On Sunday, May 3, two days after Ivey called the session, Trump urged Republican-led states to redraw even if it meant repeat elections: “If they have to vote twice, so be it,” he wrote, adding, “The byproduct is that the Republicans will receive more than 20 House Seats in the upcoming Midterms!” Democracy Docket noted that it was difficult to imagine a ruling for Alabama that would not require nullifying the first vote. Alabama was one of three states, with Louisiana and Tennessee, racing to change maps after Callais.
Update (October 2, 2026): The Legislature passed contingency bills authorizing replacement primaries, and Ivey signed them on May 8. After the Supreme Court vacated the court-ordered map, Ivey on May 12 announced the state would use the 2023 Legislature-drawn map and set a special primary for August 11 in the 1st, 2nd, 6th and 7th districts. Lawmakers approved legislation to nullify the results of the ongoing primaries in those districts, AP reported. Rep. Shomari Figures's 2nd District was redrawn to favor Republicans, and its Black voting-age population fell from 48% to 40%. Figures and Rep. Terri Sewell won their special primaries unopposed on August 11.
Correction (October 2, 2026): This entry previously put quotation marks around a goal to “eliminate both congressional seats currently held by Black Democrats” and attributed those words to Ledbetter and Gudger. That phrase was Democracy Docket's characterization; their joint statement spoke of sending “seven Republican members to Congress.” The entry also said court rulings for Alabama would not require nullifying May 19 votes, when Democracy Docket's reporting said the opposite and the Legislature later nullified those primaries. It dated the Callais ruling to May 1 rather than April 29. It said Ivey acted in coordination with a Trump directive, though Trump's “vote twice” post came two days after she called the session. And it named Florida rather than Tennessee as the third state racing to redraw. Those passages have been corrected, and unsourced claims about a coordinated three-state push and Trump's seat projection depending on it were removed.