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1996 United States Senate election in Alabama

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Field	Value
election_name	1996 United States Senate election in Alabama
country	Alabama
type	presidential
ongoing	no
previous_election	1990 United States Senate election in Alabama
previous_year	1990
next_election	2002 United States Senate election in Alabama
next_year	2002
election_date	November 5, 1996
image_size	125x136px
image1	Jeff Sessions as a U.S. Senator in 1997.png
nominee1	Jeff Sessions
party1	Republican Party (United States)
popular_vote1	786,436
percentage1	52.45%
image2	No image.png
nominee2	Roger Bedford
party2	Democratic Party (United States)
popular_vote2	681,651
percentage2	45.46%
map_image
map_size	250px
map_caption	Sessions:
Bedford:
title	U.S. Senator
before_election	Howell Heflin
before_party	Democratic Party (United States)
after_election	Jeff Sessions
after_party	Republican Party (United States)

Bedford:
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 the first of his party to win this seat since Reconstruction in 1868 and only the second Republican ever to be popularly elected to the U.S. Senate from Alabama.

The swearing-in or the inauguration of Jeff Sessions marked the first time since 1871 that Republicans simultaneously held both Senate seats. This was the first time ever that a Republican won a full term to this Senate seat.

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, Heflin was re-elected in 1990 with over 60% of the vote. Until 2017, Richard Shelby’s 1992 victory was the last time Democrats won a U.S. Senate seat in Alabama; Shelby later became a Republican in 1994.

Democratic primary

Candidates

Roger Bedford, state senator
Marilyn Q. Bromberg
Glen Browder, U.S. representative from Jacksonville since 1989
Natalie Davis, professor of political science at Birmingham-Southern College

Results

Democratic primary first round results by county

|center]] |center]]{{Election box begin no change

Republican primary

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

Results

Republican primary first round results by county

|center]]

Republican primary runoff results by county

|center]]

General election

Candidates

Roger Bedford (D), state senator
Charles Hebner (NL), activist
Jeff Sessions (R), attorney general of Alabama
Mark Thornton (L), economist

Results

References

(November 5, 1968). "1968 Presidential General Election Results - Alabama". Uselectionatlas.org.
"Natalie Davis". Birmingham-Southern College.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

united-states-senate-elections-in-alabama 1996-alabama-elections 1996-united-states-senate-elections jeff-sessions

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