Fincher: Runoff election results and what they tell us
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“Mrs. Hogwallop up an’ R-U-N-N-O-F-T.” – Wash Hogwallop, a character played by Frank Collison in the film “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”
The field is finally set for this year’s general election in November.
Well … it is set unless you are reading this from Alabama’s 1st, 2nd, 6th or 7th congressional districts, but that is another topic for another day.
The tight margins of every statewide race kept me interested in the results of last week’s runoff election, but, unfortunately, this was not the case for most Alabama voters. In fact, if you gave me one word to describe the voter turnout I would choose yikes.
Less than 11 percent of registered voters turned in a ballot. That is woeful for an election where both parties were determining their standard bearers for U.S. senator, and Republicans were making their choices for multiple other statewide offices.
My previous column talked about how we can reform Alabama’s election process, so I will not beat that dead horse again here. Instead, let’s talk about what the runoff results mean politically in the here and now.
First, if you are a Republican candidate, an endorsement from President Donald Trump is the Willy Wonka-certified golden ticket to win the party nomination in 2026.
A Trump endorsement allowed U.S. Rep. Barry Moore to be elevated above a crowded GOP field to win the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate.
A likely Trump endorsement for Tommy Tuberville was also enough to keep current Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth out of the governor’s race despite Ainsworth laying groundwork for a run for well over a year before Tuberville’s decision to jump in the race.
Even so, Trump’s influence was perhaps most apparent in the race for lieutenant governor. Wes Allen spent much of his tenure as secretary of state building connections throughout Alabama and had announced his intention to run for lieutenant governor way back in February of 2025.
Allen’s best-laid plans did not matter in the end. Former Alabama Republican Party chairman John Wahl entered the race on the last day to qualify after receiving an endorsement from Trump earlier that same week.
Wahl’s margin of victory over Allen ended up being the widest of the runoff’s statewide races.
My other takeaway from the runoff is if you are an Alabama Democrat, you might finally be seeing a sliver of sunlight after stumbling around in the darkness for ages.
While Trump’s endorsements demonstrated his hold over the Republican Party, the low voter turnout might also indicate there may not be much enthusiasm from voters for this year’s Republican ticket. Part of the blame may fall on Trump himself.
His willingness to go scorched earth against any Republican he deems insufficiently loyal has tightened his stranglehold on the party, but it also leaves those battered Republicans and their supporters out in the cold, which could end up shrinking the party.
While spurned Republicans may not be willing to vote for Democrats, they might instead decide to stay home on elections days. Maybe that happened on June 16, or maybe a rainy day discouraged people from traveling to their polling sites. We will not know for sure until November.
All that said, Democrats should not bet on winning any statewide races this November but now might be their best chance to begin to crawl out from the deep hole they occupy.
And, finally, three fun facts from this runoff to cleanse the palete. Jim Zeigler won the Republican nomination for place 2 on Public Service Commission. This would not be his first term on the PSC, though, should he be elected in November.
He was elected to a four-year term on the PSC way back in 1974 when he was 24 years old. Without researching it, I would guess the gap between his terms for the same position would be some kind of state record.
My second fact also involves the inimitable Zeigler. He picked up the nickname “Mr. 49 Percent” because of several close losses over the course of his countless campaigns for multiple state offices. However, fate finally broke his way in this runoff as he captured slightly more than half the vote.
Maybe Zeigler can be known as “Mr. 51 Percent” for at least the next few months.
Last but not least, Alex Angle of “Alabama Daily News” pointed out that should Moore win election to the U.S. Senate in November then both of Alabama’s senators would hail from Enterprise, a small city of around 30,000 in Coffee County.
Must be something in the water down there, or given the county, something in the java.
Brandon Fincher is an academic journal editor at Auburn University. He lives in Opelika with his wife, daughter and two Labrador retrievers. You can find his writing at brandonfincher.com.
