Alabama Democrats Mobilize Black Voters After Supreme Court Weakens Voting Rights Act
Alabama Democrats are intensifying efforts to mobilize Black voters following a Supreme Court decision in May 2026 that weakened enforcement of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which previously protected against racially discriminatory redistricting. This decision has allowed Republicans to redraw congressional maps in ways that Democrats argue dilute Black voting strength.
In June 2026, a federal three-judge panel blocked Alabama's Republican-backed congressional map, ruling it intentionally discriminated based on race by maintaining only one majority-Black district. The court mandated the continued use of a map from the 2024 cycle, which included two districts where Black voters are a majority or near-majority.
Alabama has appealed to the Supreme Court to use the contested map favoring Republicans, despite the court's earlier finding of racial bias. Black Alabamians make up over 25% of the state's population, yet historically, only one of seven House districts was majority Black. The court-ordered map change in 2024 created a second majority-Black district, increasing Black voter turnout by 0.75 percentage points and narrowing the white-Black turnout gap by two points.
Judicial interventions since 2022 have led to the creation of an additional minority-opportunity district, resulting in the 2024 election of Shomari Figures, a Black Democrat, thus expanding Alabama's delegation from one to two Black members of Congress.