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United States Senate election in Alabama, 1996

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786,436
  
681,651

Start date
  
November 5, 1996

52.5%
  
45.5%

United States Senate election in Alabama, 1996 httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

The 1996 United States Senate election in Alabama was held on November 5, 1996. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Howell Heflin decided to retire. Republican Jeff Sessions won the open seat, becoming just the second Republican U.S. Senator elected to represent Alabama since Reconstruction (Richard Shelby became a Republican in 1994, but he was elected as a Democrat).

Contents

Background

In the 1968 presidential election, Alabama supported native son and American Independent Party candidate George Wallace over both Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey. Wallace was the official Democratic candidate in Alabama, while Humphrey was listed as the "National Democratic". In 1976, Democratic candidate Jimmy Carter from Georgia carried the state, the region, and the nation, but Democratic control of the region slipped after that.

Since 1980, conservative Alabama voters have increasingly voted for Republican candidates at the Federal level, especially in Presidential elections. By contrast, Democratic candidates have been elected to many state-level offices and, until 2010, comprised a longstanding majority in the Alabama Legislature.

Three-term incumbent Howell Heflin decided not to seek re-election. A 75-year-old moderate-to-conservative Democrat, who was re-elected in 1990 with over 60% remained to date the last member of the Democratic Party who won a Senate seat in Republican-turning Alabama (his colleague, Richard Shelby, elected twice as a Democrat, switched to Republican in 1994 and still remains in Senate).

Candidates

  • Roger Bedford, State Senator
  • Marilyn Q. Bromberg
  • Glen Browder, U.S. Representative
  • Natalie Davis, professor of political science at Birmingham-Southern College
  • Candidates

  • Jimmy Blake, Birmingham City Councilman
  • Walter D. Clark, podiatrist and Vietnam veteran
  • Albert Lipscomb, State Senator
  • Sid McDonald, former State Senator
  • Frank McRight, attorney and Democratic nominee for AL-01 in 1984
  • Jeff Sessions, Alabama Attorney General
  • Charles Woods, businessman and perennial candidate
  • Candidates

  • Roger Bedford (D), State Senator
  • Charles Hebner (NL), activist
  • Mark Thornton (L), economist
  • Jeff Sessions (R), Attorney General of Alabama
  • References

    United States Senate election in Alabama, 1996 Wikipedia