U.S. Rep. Barry Moore, R-Enterprise, won the Republican nomination Tuesday for the Alabama 1st Congressional District, which stretches from Mobile through the Wiregrass.
As of 11 p.m. Tuesday, Moore had 53,805 votes (51.75%) in unofficial returns. U.S. Rep. Jerry Carl, R-Mobile, who currently represents the 1st Congressional District, had 50,156 votes (48.25%).
Moore, who currently represents the 2nd Congressional District, will face presumptive Democratic nominee Tom Holmes in the November general election.
A message seeking comment was left with Moore on Tuesday.
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The 1st Congressional District was one of two districts to significantly change after a federal court approved a new congressional map for the state in October. The ruling came after almost two years of litigation between the state and Black Alabama residents who said a 2021 congressional map effectively silenced their voices in the political process.
Moore announced he was going to run in the 1st Congressional District following the court order, which gave the 2nd Congressional District a Democratic lean. If he ran in the 2nd Congressional District, which he had been drawn out of, he would have run in a district that President Biden would have won in 2020 by 12 points, according to the Cook Political Report.
According to an Auburn University in Montgomery poll in late February, 43% of respondents planned to vote for Carl and 35% for Moore, with 22% undecided. The poll was conducted on Feb. 27, with 1,909 likely Republican voters for the Mar. 5 primary with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.
Moore received a significant share of the vote in the Wiregrass counties that were previously in the 2nd Congressional District. While Carl carried Mobile, Baldwin and Escambia counties, it was not enough to overcome Moore’s strength in the Wiregrass.
Moore also aligned himself with the more conservative wing of the Republican party. He is the only member of the Alabama delegation to be a member of the House Freedom Caucus, generally considered to be the most conservative, right bloc within the House Republican Party. He received endorsements from high-profile lawmakers, such as Ted Cruz of Texas.
