Alabama's 1st Congressional District election, 2020

	2022 → ← 2018
Alabama's 1st Congressional District
	Democratic primary; Republican primary; Republican primary runoff; General election
Election details
	Filing deadline: November 8, 2019
	Primary: March 3, 2020; Primary runoff: July 14, 2020; General: November 3, 2020; Pre-election incumbent:; Bradley Byrne (Republican); Election winner:; Jerry Carl (Republican)
How to vote
	Poll times: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Voting in Alabama
Race ratings
	Cook Political Report: Solid Republican; Inside Elections: Solid Republican; Sabato's Crystal Ball: Safe Republican
Ballotpedia analysis
	U.S. Senate battlegrounds; U.S. House battlegrounds; Federal and state primary competitiveness; Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2020
See also
	Alabama's 1st Congressional District; U.S. Senate • 1st • 2nd • 3rd • 4th • 5th • 6th • 7th; Alabama elections, 2020; U.S. Congress elections, 2020; U.S. Senate elections, 2020; U.S. House elections, 2020; Alabama U.S. House racesAlaska U.S. House racesArizona U.S. House racesArkansas U.S. House racesCalifornia U.S. House racesColorado U.S. House racesConnecticut U.S. House racesDelaware U.S. House racesFlorida U.S. House racesGeorgia U.S. House racesHawaii U.S. House racesIdaho U.S. House racesIllinois U.S. House racesIndiana U.S. House racesIowa U.S. House racesKansas U.S. House racesKentucky U.S. House racesLouisiana U.S. House racesMaine U.S. House racesMaryland U.S. House racesMassachusetts U.S. House racesMichigan U.S. House racesMinnesota U.S. House racesMississippi U.S. House racesMissouri U.S. House racesMontana U.S. House racesNebraska U.S. House racesNevada U.S. House racesNew Hampshire U.S. House racesNew Jersey U.S. House racesNew Mexico U.S. House racesNew York U.S. House racesNorth Carolina U.S. House racesNorth Dakota U.S. House racesOhio U.S. House racesOklahoma U.S. House racesOregon U.S. House racesPennsylvania U.S. House racesRhode Island U.S. House racesSouth Carolina U.S. House racesSouth Dakota U.S. House racesTennessee U.S. House racesTexas U.S. House racesUtah U.S. House racesVermont U.S. House racesVirginia U.S. House racesWashington U.S. House racesWest Virginia U.S. House racesWisconsin U.S. House racesWyoming U.S. House racesSubmit

All U.S. congressional districts, including the 1st Congressional District of Alabama, held elections in 2020.

Jerry Carl defeated James Averhart in the general election for U.S. House Alabama District 1 on November 3, 2020.

Candidate filing deadline	Primary election	General election
November 8, 2019	March 3, 2020	November 3, 2020

Both Averhart and Carl advanced to primary runoffs after no candidates received over 50 percent of the vote in their initial primaries. Averhart defeated Kiani Gardner in the Democratic runoff, receiving 57 percent of the vote to Gardner's 43 percent. Carl defeated Bill Hightower in the Republican runoff with 52 percent of the vote to Hightower's 48 percent.

Heading into the election the incumbent was Republican Bradley Byrne, who was first elected in 2013. On February 20, 2019, Byrne announced his candidacy for Alabama's United States Senate seat in 2020.^[1]
The 1st District is located in southwestern Alabama and includes Mobile, Baldwin, Escambia, Monroe and Washington counties and a portion of Clarke County.^[2]

Click on the links for more information about the Republican primary and runoff.
Click on the links for more information about the Democratic primary and runoff.

Post-election analysis

The table below compares the vote totals in the 2020 presidential election and 2020 U.S. House election for this district. The presidential election data was compiled by Daily Kos.

Presidential and congressional election results, Alabama's 1st Congressional District, 2020
Race	Presidential	U.S. House
Democratic candidate	35.3	35.5
Republican candidate	63.7	64.4
Difference	28.4	28.9

Election procedure changes in 2020

See also: Changes to election dates, procedures, and administration in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, 2020

Ballotpedia provided comprehensive coverage of how election dates and procedures changed in 2020. While the majority of changes occurred as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, some changes occurred for other reasons.

Alabama modified its absentee/mail-in voting and candidate filing procedures for the November 3, 2020, general election as follows:

Absentee/mail-in voting: Any qualified voter could cast an absentee ballot in the general election.
Candidate filing procedures: The petition deadline for unaffiliated presidential candidates was extended to August 20, 2020.

For a full timeline about election modifications made in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, click here.

Candidates and election results

General election

General election for U.S. House Alabama District 1

Jerry Carl defeated James Averhart in the general election for U.S. House Alabama District 1 on November 3, 2020.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Jerry Carl (R)	64.4	211,825
	James Averhart (D)	35.5	116,949
	Other/Write-in votes	0.1	301

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 329,075
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Democratic primary runoff election

Democratic primary runoff for U.S. House Alabama District 1

James Averhart defeated Kiani Gardner in the Democratic primary runoff for U.S. House Alabama District 1 on July 14, 2020.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	James Averhart	56.7	15,840
	Kiani Gardner	43.3	12,102

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 27,942
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Republican primary runoff election

Republican primary runoff for U.S. House Alabama District 1

Jerry Carl defeated Bill Hightower in the Republican primary runoff for U.S. House Alabama District 1 on July 14, 2020.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Jerry Carl	52.3	44,421
	Bill Hightower	47.7	40,552

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 84,973
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Alabama District 1

Kiani Gardner and James Averhart advanced to a runoff. They defeated Frederick Collins in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Alabama District 1 on March 3, 2020.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Kiani Gardner	44.1	22,962
✔	James Averhart	40.3	21,022
	Frederick Collins	15.6	8,119

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 52,103
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Alabama District 1

Jerry Carl and Bill Hightower advanced to a runoff. They defeated Chris Pringle, Wes Lambert, and John Castorani in the Republican primary for U.S. House Alabama District 1 on March 3, 2020.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Jerry Carl	38.7	38,490
✔	Bill Hightower	37.5	37,283
	Chris Pringle	19.2	19,126
	Wes Lambert	3.1	3,102
	John Castorani	1.5	1,468

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 99,469
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Chase Anderson Romagnano (R)

Runoff elections in Alabama

In Alabama, a primary election candidate for congressional, state, or county office must receive a majority of the vote (more than 50%) to be declared the winner. If no candidate wins the requisite majority, a runoff election is held between the top two vote-getters.^[3]

As of 2020, the Alabama Secretary of State office stated that "if you vote in a primary election and want to vote in a primary runoff election, you must vote in the primary runoff election of the same political party that you chose in the primary election. However, if you did not vote in a political party's primary election and would like to vote in the primary runoff election, you may choose which political party's primary runoff election you would like to vote in."^[4]

District analysis

See also: The Cook Political Report's Partisan Voter Index

See also: FiveThirtyEight's elasticity scores

The 2017 Cook Partisan Voter Index for this district was R+15, meaning that in the previous two presidential elections, this district's results were 15 percentage points more Republican than the national average. This made Alabama's 1st Congressional District the 79th most Republican nationally.^[5]

FiveThirtyEight's September 2018 elasticity score for states and congressional districts measured "how sensitive it is to changes in the national political environment." This district's elasticity score was 0.90. This means that for every 1 point the national political mood moved toward a party, the district was expected to move 0.90 points toward that party.^[6]

Campaign finance

This section contains campaign finance figures from the Federal Election Commission covering all candidate fundraising and spending in this election.^[7] It does not include information on fundraising before the current campaign cycle or on spending by satellite groups. The numbers in this section are updated as candidates file new campaign finance reports. Candidates for Congress are required to file financial reports on a quarterly basis, as well as two weeks before any primary, runoff, or general election in which they will be on the ballot and upon the termination of any campaign committees.^[8] The chart below contains data from financial reports submitted to the Federal Election Commission.

Name

Party

Receipts*

Disbursements**

Cash on hand

Date

James Averhart

Democratic Party

$80,095

$78,973

$1,122

As of December 31, 2020

Jerry Carl

Republican Party

$2,344,517

$2,232,544

$111,973

As of December 31, 2020

Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," 2020. This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

* According to the FEC, "Receipts are anything of value (money, goods, services or property) received by a political committee."
** According to the FEC, a disbursement "is a purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, deposit or gift of money or anything of value to influence a federal election," plus other kinds of payments not made to influence a federal election.

Race ratings

See also: Race rating definitions and methods

Ballotpedia provides race ratings from four outlets: The Cook Political Report, Inside Elections, Sabato's Crystal Ball, and DDHQ/The Hill. Each race rating indicates if one party is perceived to have an advantage in the race and, if so, the degree of advantage:

Safe and Solid ratings indicate that one party has a clear edge and the race is not competitive.
Likely ratings indicate that one party has a clear edge, but an upset is possible.
Lean ratings indicate that one party has a small edge, but the race is competitive.^[9]
Toss-up ratings indicate that neither party has an advantage.

Race ratings are informed by a number of factors, including polling, candidate quality, and election result history in the race's district or state.^[10]^[11]^[12]

Race ratings: Alabama's 1st Congressional District election, 2020
Race tracker	Race ratings
	November 3, 2020	October 27, 2020	October 20, 2020	October 13, 2020
The Cook Political Report	Solid Republican	Solid Republican	Solid Republican	Solid Republican
Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales	Solid Republican	Solid Republican	Solid Republican	Solid Republican
Larry J. Sabato's Crystal Ball	Safe Republican	Safe Republican	Safe Republican	Safe Republican
Note: Ballotpedia updates external race ratings every week throughout the election season.

Candidate ballot access

The table below details filing requirements for 1st Congressional District candidates in Alabama in the 2020 election cycle. For additional information on candidate ballot access requirements in Alabama, click here.

Filing requirements, 2020
State	Office	Party	Signatures required	Signature formula	Filing fee	Filing fee formula	Filing deadline	Source
Alabama	1st Congressional District	Democratic	N/A	N/A	$3,480.00	2% of base salary	11/8/2019	Source
Alabama	1st Congressional District	Republican	N/A	N/A	$3,480.00	2% of base salary	11/8/2019	Source
Alabama	1st Congressional District	Unaffiliated	7,310	3% of qualified electors who voted for governor in the last general election	N/A	N/A	3/3/2020	Source

Pivot Counties

See also: Pivot Counties by state

Pivot Counties are counties that voted for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012 and for Donald Trump (R) in 2016. Altogether, the nation had 206 Pivot Counties, with most being concentrated in upper midwestern and northeastern states. No counties in Alabama are Pivot Counties.

In the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump (R) won Alabama with 62.1 percent of the vote. Hillary Clinton (D) received 34.4 percent. In presidential elections between 1900 and 2016, Alabama voted Democratic 53.33 percent of the time and Republican 40 percent of the time. In the five presidential elections between 2000 and 2016, Alabama voted Republican all five times.

District election history