Madison County enters blue era as Democrats score election wins
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The blue wave that swept the nation Tuesday night may have crested before it reached Alabama, but Madison County made a wave of its own.
Why it matters: Shifting North Alabama demographics and voting patterns became a steady topic leading up to Election Day, which showed just how blue Madison County has become after it helped flip Republican legislative seats.
Zoom in: In State House District 25, which covers parts of Limestone and Madison counties, voters elected the state's first transgender lawmaker, Allison Montgomery, and an openly gay sheriff in Democrat Brett Jones.
- Voters flipped the seat of eight-year incumbent Republican Sam Givhan in State Senate District 7, which covers Madison County, where Democrat Jared Sluss narrowly pulled off the upset. They also filled the Senate District 2 seat with Democrat Rudolph Valentino Drake.
By the numbers: Of the 101,772 ballots in Madison County that were voted straight-party, 53% were for the Democratic Party and 47% for the Republican Party, per Madison County's unofficial results.
- In the 2024 general election in Madison County, the straight-party voting broke down 57.6% Republican and 41.5% Democratic.
- The 2022 midterm results were an even wider split: 63.8% Republican to 35.2% Democratic.
- That's a nearly 35-percentage-point swing toward Democrats since the 2022 midterms, when Republicans held a nearly 29-point advantage in straight-party voting.
Driving the news: Turnout overall was strong Tuesday, at 47.7%, but fell short of the 2018 midterms' 53% while beating 2018's and 2022's roughly 39%.
- Up and down the ballot, county voters chose Democrats, including Andrew Sneed over incumbent Dale Strong to represent the 5th Congressional District, 55.5% to 44.4%, and Doug Jones over Tommy Tuberville for governor, 57.8% to 41.7%.
- Republicans James Lomax in State House District 20, Rex Reynolds in District 21, and county school board candidates Keith Trawick and Brian Brooks were the only Republican candidates to get more votes than their Democratic opponents in Madison County.
What they're saying: "Madison County is blue — it's a fact," Sneed told Axios Wednesday. "It might not stay that way, but in 2026, it ain't purple, it's blue."
- District-wide, Sneed lost to Strong by about 6.5 points, 46.7% to 53.19%, a much tighter race than in 2022, the last time Strong faced a Democratic opponent, when he won by a margin of 37.5 points.
What we're hearing: "There were a lot of surprises that were there, but you learn from all of them," Strong told Axios on Wednesday.
- The message from voters is about kitchen-table issues, Strong said, namely the high prices of fuel and groceries, saying "the American people deserve better."
- "We've got a great job environment here, but that's not the issue being discussed," he said.
The latest: Sneed said he won't run again in two years but will continue working with a coalition of candidates he spearheaded, Take BAC Congress.
- He's not surprised by the vote but said his campaign received no help from the national Democratic Party.
- "With some national help, we very much could've won this race," Sneed told Axios. "But we didn't get that help."
Zoom out: The 5th District covers six counties including Madison, and all the others were red Tuesday, though Limestone is steadily moving toward purple.
- The share of Limestone County straight-party voters picking the Democratic ticket grew from 20.8% in 2022 to 26.2% in 2024 to 38% in 2026.
The bottom line: "We build new relationships with some of the new faces that will be coming [to Congress], and hopefully America will be better because of it," Strong said.