Alabama 2010 Election Results

Alabama held its general election on November 2, 2010, deciding 140 legislative seats and 7 statewide offices led by the governorship. Control shifted: the Senate moved from a 20-14 Democratic majority to a 22-12 Republican majority; the House moved from a 60-45 Democratic majority to a 62-43 Republican majority.

Highlights

• Republicans took the Alabama Legislature for the first time since Reconstruction, and with Robert J. Bentley (R) winning the governorship they held full control of state government. The new majorities would draw the post-2010-census maps. A federal court later wrote that the 2010 election collapsed the partisan gerrymander that had protected Democratic control of the Legislature.
• Election night left Republicans with a 62-43 House. Before the session began, four House Democrats switched to the Republican Party, raising the Republican majority from 62 to 66 seats and giving the GOP a supermajority able to end any filibuster. Mike Hubbard (R) was the incoming Speaker. In the 22-12-1 Senate, the Republican majority picked Del Marsh (R) as president pro tem.
• Republicans won every statewide office on the ballot. Bentley, who declared victory on election night, beat Ron Sparks (D) by about 16 points to succeed Republican Gov. Bob Riley. The closest statewide race was for lieutenant governor, where Kay Ivey (R) unseated Jim Folsom Jr. (D) by about 3 points and became the first Republican woman elected to the office.
• Republicans gained all but one of the 29 legislative seats that changed party, and 22 incumbents lost in November, Folsom among them. Both Democratic majority leaders fell: Senate Majority Leader Zeb Little (D) lost Senate District 4 to Paul Bussman (R), and House Majority Leader Ken Guin (D) lost House District 14 to Richard Baughn (R).
  • Lowell Barron (D), who had served in the Senate since 1982, lost Senate District 8 to Shadrack McGill (R) by fewer than 600 votes.
  • Gerald Dial (R) flipped the open Senate District 13 by about 370 votes.
  • The lone Democratic gain came in House District 73, where Joseph Lister Hubbard (D) unseated David Grimes (R) by about 310 votes.
  Beyond the flips, 2 more races finished inside two points.
• Voters rejected every statewide constitutional amendment on the ballot. The closest, Amendment 4, failed by about 6,700 votes.

Legislature

• House (105 seats): 60 D, 45 R before the election, 39 D, 66 R after; control moved from Democrats to Republicans.
• Senate (35 seats): 21 D, 14 R before the election, 12 D, 22 R, 1 other or vacant after; control moved from Democrats to Republicans.

Statewide races

Legislative races

Ballot measures