Alabama Senate District 5 holds Democratic primary election: Here's what to know
Democratic voters in parts of northwest Alabama go to the polls Tuesday to choose a nominee for a special election for the state Senate.
Two Democratic candidates, Ryan Cagle and Sarah Watkins, are running in the special election. There is no Republican primary as the sole Republican candidate, Rep. Matt Woods, R-Jasper, is running unopposed.
The general election is scheduled for June 24.
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday.
The Alabama Secretary of State's website allows you to check voter registration and the location of your polling place. You can find it here.
Voters must present a valid photo ID before voting. Valid forms of ID include:
Alabama driver's license (not expired or expired less than 60 days)
Alabama Law Enforcement Agency digital driver's license
Alabama Non-Driver ID (not expired or expired less than 60 days)
Alabama Photo Voter ID card
State-issued ID (Alabama or any other state)
Federal-issued ID
U.S. Passport
Employee ID from the federal government; state of Alabama; county; municipality, board or other entity of Alabama
Student or employee ID from a public or private post-secondary educational institution in Alabama or other states (including colleges, universities, postgraduate technical and professional schools)
Digital student or employee ID from a public or private post-secondary educational institution in Alabama or other states (including colleges, universities, postgraduate technical and professional schools)
Military ID
Tribal ID
Senate District 5 covers north-central Alabama, starting at the Mississippi border and continuing eastward, including all of Fayette, Lamar and Walker counties, as well as parts of Tuscaloosa and Jefferson counties.
Former Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Reed, R-Jasper, stepped down at the beginning of the year to join Gov. Kay Ivey's administration as Senior Advisor to Workforce Transformation. Reed, first elected in 2010, had led the Senate since 2021. Reed's role is transitioning the Department of Labor into the new Department of Workforce, with an aim at boosting Alabama's labor force participation. Reed was strongly allied with business interests and helped expand tax incentives and workforce training programs during his time in the Senate.
The seat is strongly Republican. Reed first won the seat in 2010 as a first-time candidate with 73.3% of the votes. Reed subsequently ran unopposed in the Republican primaries and was not challenged by a Democratic candidate in 2014, 2018 and 2022, according to Ballotpedia.
Candidates in the Democratic primary said they are tired of their communities being neglected by their Republican elected officials.
Cagle said in an interview after qualifying for the seat that the local community has struggled to address many issues, pointing to the district's struggle in dealing with the opioid crisis. He said elected officials are disconnected from their constituents, adding that they 'have lives completely separated from the vulnerable in our communities.' Instead, Cagle said elected officials have focused on catering to business instead of addressing working-class issues.
Watkins said Republicans have been in control for too long and that 'the common person here is just being pushed aside.' She said that calls from constituents go unanswered and that they are more focused on catering to 'these big-money individuals who claim to be small business owners when they're not.'
Woods first elected to the House in 2022, wrote in a text message that he's been 'working hard for the people of Alabama.' He said he's brought over $58 million for schools to his district, and just signed on to co-sponsor a bill accelerating a decrease in sales tax on groceries. He said that he 'believe[s] in freedom, limited government, and conservative values. (Democrats) believe the same things as Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.'
The Democratic candidate who wins Tuesday's primary will face Woods in the general election on June 24.
No. Republicans currently hold 76 of the 105 seats in the lower chamber and 26 of the 35 seats in the upper chamber.
Candidates for Senate District 5 Democratic Primary
Age: 33
Residence: Parrish
Occupation: Communications professional, volunteer co-director of Jubilee House Community nonprofit
Education: Master of Divinity in Social Transformation and a Master of Arts in Ecological Justice from United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, in progress.
Party: Democratic
Previous political experience: First-time candidate
Fundraising: Through February 28, Cagle had raised $882 and spent $58.
Age: 37
Residence: Oakman
Occupation: Barista
Education: Associate degree, Advanced Design Engineering, Bevill State Community College, 2024.
Party: Democratic
Previous political experience: First-time candidate
Fundraising: Through February 28, Watkins had raised $160 and spent $3.
SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
4 minutes ago
- New York Times
‘Anybody but Mamdani': 5 Groups Emerge to Raise Millions in Attack Funds
In the blood sport of New York City real estate, where comity can be hard to come by, the developers of some of the city's most prized parcels appeared to be in agreement about one thing when they met in private this week. Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate for mayor, had to be taken down. 'Our goal is anybody but Mamdani,' Marty Burger, the chief executive of Infinite Global Real Estate Partners, wrote in one of two emails sent ahead of the meeting that were obtained by The New York Times. To help, Mr. Burger proposed that his peers start by putting in $25,000 each to a new super PAC, New Yorkers for a Better Future, or to seed other groups. He cited potential ad campaigns attacking Mr. Mamdani; spending plans to boost specific rivals; and other efforts to register and turn out thousands of voters who typically sit out Election Day. A month after Mr. Mamdani's primary victory stunned New York's business elite, its leaders have begun cranking open a powerful gusher of outside spending to try to stop the man whose socialist policies they fear could sour the city's business climate. But with fewer than 100 days to go, they are still very much searching for a unified plan that could work. On Monday, the men whose companies run the Seagram Building and Hudson Yards joined the call for one anti-Mamdani super PAC, while leaders of a different super PAC invited donors to a $1,000-per-person fund-raiser scheduled for Thursday. 'Fighting Mamdani is expensive,' the organizer, Betsy McCaughey, a former lieutenant governor, wrote on the invitation. 'But allowing him to win will cost you more.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
38 minutes ago
Louisiana GOP senator's office asked ICE to release Marine Corps veteran's wife
A Marine Corps veteran's wife has been released from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention following advocacy from Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican who backs President Donald Trump's hardline immigration crackdown. Until this week, Mexican national Paola Clouatre had been one of tens of thousands of people in ICE custody as the Trump administration continues to press immigration officers to arrest 3,000 people a day suspected of being in the U.S. illegally. Emails reviewed by The Associated Press show that Kennedy's office said Friday that it put in a request for the Department of Homeland Security to release her after a judge halted her deportation order earlier that week. By Monday, she was out of a remote ICE detention center in north Louisiana and home in Baton Rouge with her veteran husband Adrian Clouatre and their two young children. Kennedy's constituent services representative, Christy Tate, congratulated Adrian Clouatre on his wife's release and thanked him for his military service. 'I am so happy for you and your family,' Tate wrote in an email to Adrian Clouatre. 'God is truly great!' Kennedy's office proved 'instrumental' in engaging with the Department of Homeland Security, according to Carey Holliday, the family's attorney. Kennedy's office did not provide further comment. Another Louisiana Republican, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, also intervened recently with the Department of Homeland Security to secure the release of an Iranian mother from ICE detention following widespread outcry. The woman has lived for decades in New Orleans. Kennedy has generally been a staunch supporter of Trump's immigration policies. 'Illegal immigration is illegal — duh,' Kennedy posted on his Facebook page on July 17, amid a series of recent media appearances decrying efforts to prevent ICE officers from making arrests. In April, however, he criticized the Trump administration for mistakenly deporting a Maryland man. The Department of Homeland Security previously told The AP it considered Clouatre to be 'illegally' in the country. An email chain shared by Adrian Clouatre shows that the family's attorney reached out to Kennedy's office in early June after Paola Clouatre was detained in late May. Tate received Paola Clouatre's court documents by early July and said she then contacted ICE, according to the email exchange. On July 23, an immigration judge halted Paola Clouatre's deportation order. After Adrian Clouatre notified Kennedy's office, Tate said she 'sent the request to release' Paola Clouatre to DHS and shared a copy of the judge's motion with the agency, emails show. In an email several days later, Tate said that ICE told her it 'continues to make custody determinations on a case-by-case basis based on the specific circumstances of each case' and had received the judge's decision from Kennedy's office 'for consideration." The next working day, Paola Clouatre was released from custody. 'We will continue to keep you, your family and others that are experiencing the same issues in our prayers," Tate said in an email to Adrian Clouatre. 'If you need our assistance in the future, please contact us." Paola Clouatre had been detained by ICE officers on May 27 during an appointment related to her green card application. She had entered the country as a minor with her mother from Mexico more than a decade ago and was legally processed while seeking asylum, she, her husband and her attorney say. But Clouatre's mother later failed to show up for a court date, leading a judge to issue a deportation order against Paola Clouatre in 2018, though by then she had become estranged from her mother and was homeless. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Clouatre's release. Adrian Clouatre said he wished the agency would "actually look at the circumstances' before detaining people like his wife. 'It shouldn't just be like a blanket 'Oh, they're illegal, throw them in ICE detention.'' Reunited with her breastfeeding infant daughter and able to snuggle with her toddler son, Paola Clouatre told AP she feels like a mother again. 'I was feeling bad,' she said of detention. 'I was feeling like I failed my kids.' It will likely be a multiyear court process before Paola Clouatre's immigration court proceedings are formally closed, but things look promising, and she should be able to obtain her green card eventually, her attorney said. For now, she's wearing an ankle monitor, but still able to pick up life where she left off, her husband says. The day of her arrest in New Orleans, the couple had planned to sample some of the city's famed French pastries known as beignets and her husband says they'll finally get that chance again: 'We're going to make that day up.'
an hour ago
Sen. Cory Booker in angry outburst says 'complicit' Democrats need a 'wake-up call'
WASHINGTON -- In a rare public outburst on the Senate floor Tuesday, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker took his Democratic colleagues to task, declaring his party 'needs a wake-up call!' Angrily screaming at two of his shocked Democratic colleagues, his words all but reverberating off the chamber walls, Booker blocked the passage of several bipartisan bills that would fund police programs, arguing that President Donald Trump's administration has been withholding law enforcement money from Democratic-leaning states. 'This is the problem with Democrats in America right now,' Booker bellowed. 'Is we're willing to be complicit with Donald Trump!' The surprise Senate spat over bills that have broad bipartisan support — mental health resources and other help for police officers — strikes at the heart of the beleaguered Democratic party's dilemma in the second Trump era as they try to find a way back to power, and also their frustration as Republicans have pushed through legislation and nominations that they vehemently disagree with. Do they cooperate where they can, or do they fight everything, and shut down governance in the process? 'A lot of us in this caucus want to f—— fight,' Booker said with an expletive as he left the Senate floor after the exchange. Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, one of the two Democrats on the floor who tried to pass the law enforcement bills that raised Booker's ire, said she had a different view. 'We can do both,' she said afterward. 'Support our communities, keep them safe, and take on Donald Trump and his bad policies.' Booker's tirade began Tuesday afternoon when Cortez Masto tried to pass seven bipartisan bills by unanimous consent. But Booker objected to five of the seven bills, which would have directed resources to law enforcement agencies, arguing that the Trump administration is 'weaponizing' public safety grants by canceling them in many Democratic-leaning states like New Jersey. 'Why would we do something today that's playing into the president's politics and is going to hurt the officers in states like mine?' Booker asked. Things escalated from there, with Cortez Masto and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., saying that Booker should have objected when the bill was passed unanimously out of committee. 'This is not the way to go about it,' Cortez Masto said. Klobuchar said to Booker: 'You can't just do one thing on Police Week and not show up and not object and let these bills go through and then say another a few weeks later on the floor." 'I like to show up at the markups and I like to make my case," Klobuchar said. Booker responded with a booming tirade. 'The Democratic party needs a wake up call!' he yelled, walking away from his desk and out into the aisle. 'I see law firms bending the knee to this president, not caring about the larger principles,' he said, along with 'universities that should be bastions of free speech.' He added: 'You want to come at me that way, you will have to take it on with me because there's too much on the line.' The arguments points to the tensions below the surface of the Democratic caucus as they head into important moments — both this week, as Republicans push to quickly confirm dozens of Trump administration nominees before the August recess, and this fall when Congress will have to pass bipartisan spending bills to avoid a government shutdown. Democrats suffered a swift backlash from their base in the spring when Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., helped advance a Republican spending bill that kept the government open instead of forcing a shutdown. Schumer argued that shutting the government down would have been worse, and that they were both 'terrible' options. It is unclear whether Schumer and Democrats will want to force a shutdown in the fall if Republicans don't include some of their priorities in spending legislation. Booker did not have specific advice for his colleagues beyond the need to fight harder. But other senators say they will have to find a balance. Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut says he hears both things at home — 'why can't you all get along' and 'thank you for fighting.'
