Today Is the Last Day to Register. Last Week the Other Party Told Its Voters to Pick Our Nominee.

Wall of Shame — Today: Maynard Nexsen

Today on the Wall of Shame: the Maynard Nexsen PAC (Birmingham) has put $5,000 into Rep. Shomari Figures' campaign account. The same firm was also writing checks to the Republican primary opponent — bipartisan hedging from the firm representing Regions Bank in the Mabel Amos case. The Wall of Shame exists for one reason — so that total stops growing. https://take2back.com/wall-of-shame.html

LAST TUESDAY, THE OTHER PARTY PUT IT IN WRITING

On Tuesday of last week the vice chair of the Alabama Democratic Party, Tabitha Isner, posted on Facebook that the numbers were in, that the Republican frontrunners could now be identified, and that Democrats should turn out on August 11 and "knock off" the ones she listed. She named one Republican in each of three congressional districts. One of the three districts is this one.

Yellowhammer News reported the post on Thursday. The chairman of the Alabama Republican Party, Scott Stadthagen, answered it on the radio, and his answer was that Democrats intend to walk into a Republican primary and pick the Republican they believe is easiest to beat in November.

She had said something similar earlier in the month. What was new on Tuesday was the list.

WHY WE ARE NOT GOING TO REPEAT THE NAME

Take Back District 2 does not have a favorite in the Republican primary. Six Republicans are on that ballot on August 11 and we are not for any one of them and not against any one of them. That has been our position since the map was restored and it does not change fifteen days out.

Which is exactly why we are not going to print which candidate in this district she named.

Think about what that post does if we amplify it. A Republican primary voter who reads that the Democratic Party has singled out one particular Republican learns something that helps that Republican and nobody else. Publishing his name here would make this newsletter part of somebody's closing argument. We are not going to be used that way, in either direction.

The post is public. Yellowhammer's report on it is public. Anyone who wants the names can find them in about ten seconds, and we would rather you go read the whole thing yourself than take a summary from anybody, including us.

THE PART THAT IS WORTH YOUR TIME

Set the names aside and read what the post actually concedes.

The second-ranking officer of the Alabama Democratic Party is telling Democrats in this district that their best available move on August 11 is to help choose the Republican nominee.

That is not what a party does when it thinks it is going to win a district. You do not spend your voters trying to arrange a weaker opponent if you believe you can beat the stronger one. The strategy is an admission about November, and it was made in public, by someone in a position to know what her own party's numbers look like here.

There is one more thing worth knowing about how this became possible. A bill to close Alabama's primaries — to require voters to declare a party before voting in that party's primary, with a sixty-day window to stop last-minute switching — died in the state Senate on the final day of the 2026 session without ever getting a floor vote. Alabama does not register voters by party. Anyone can take either ballot.

And in this district on August 11 there is only one ballot to take. Congressman Figures drew no primary opponent, so there is no Democratic congressional contest here that day. The Attorney General has addressed the question and concluded that any qualified voter may choose either party's ballot in August, and that taking a Republican one in August after taking a Democratic one in May is not prohibited crossover voting, because a special primary is not a runoff.

HIS RECORD IS CLOSED NOW

Yesterday's brief went through the two votes Congressman Figures cast last Wednesday, and went through them honestly — both bills carried riders, we said so first, and we made the argument anyway, because nineteen House Democrats across the two bills looked at the same riders and voted yes.

Here is what has changed since then, and it is small but it matters.

Roll Call 283, taken on July 23, is the last recorded vote the Clerk of the House has posted. There is nothing after it. Barring something unscheduled, the voting record Congressman Figures carries into August 11 is the record he has right now. It is finished. Whatever anyone wants to say about it, for or against, is going to be said about a closed file.

THE CALENDAR FROM HERE

Register today. That is the only thing on this list with no substitute.

If you are voting absentee, the application has to reach your county Absentee Election Manager by Tuesday, August 4 if you mail it, or Thursday, August 6 if you hand it in. A hand-delivered ballot has to be back in that office by five o'clock on Monday, August 10. A mailed ballot has to arrive by noon on August 11. Alabama requires a reason to vote absentee, so check the list before you count on it.

On August 11 the polls are open from seven in the morning to seven at night. Bring photo identification.

There is no runoff. Whoever finishes first on August 11 is the nominee, and in a six-way race that number is going to be smaller than most people expect.

Register today.