United States Senate election in Alabama, 1996

United States Senate election in Alabama, 1996
Alabama
November 5, 1996
 
Nominee Jeff Sessions Roger Bedford
Party Republican Democratic
Popular vote 786,436 681,651
Percentage 52.5% 45.5%

County results
U.S. Senator before election

Howell Heflin
Democratic

 Elected U.S. Senator

Jeff Sessions
Republican

Elections in Alabama

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.

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".[1] 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).

Democratic primary

Candidates

Results

June 4 Original primary

June 25 Runoff

Republican primary

Candidates

Results

Original primary

Runoff (held the same day as the Democratic run-off):

General election

Candidates

Results

References

  1. ↑ "1968 Presidential General Election Results - Alabama". Uselectionatlas.org. 1968-11-05. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
  2. ↑ "Natalie Davis". Birmingham-Southern College. Retrieved 27 November 2011.

Source

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