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Jim Carns
2011 - Present
2026
14
Jim Carns (Republican Party) is a member of the Alabama House of Representatives, representing District 48. He assumed office in 2011. His current term ends on November 4, 2026.
Carns (Republican Party) ran for re-election to the Alabama House of Representatives to represent District 48. He won in the general election on November 8, 2022.
Carns was an at-large delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention from Alabama. He was one of 36 delegates from Alabama bound by state party rules to support Donald Trump at the convention.[1] As of July 13, 2016, Trump had approximately 1,542 delegates. The winner of the Republican nomination needed the support of 1,237 delegates. Trump formally won the nomination on July 19, 2016.
Biography
Carns received his B.S. in engineering from the University of Alabama. His professional experience includes serving as president pro tempore of the Jefferson County Commission. He has been a member of the Association of County Commissioners of Alabama and the National Conference of Republican County Officials.[2]
Committee assignments
Note: This membership information was last updated in September 2023. Ballotpedia completes biannual updates of committee membership. If you would like to send us an update, email us at: editor@ballotpedia.org.
2023-2024
Carns was assigned to the following committees:
- Children and Senior Advocacy Committee
- Commerce and Small Business Committee, Chair
- Jefferson County Legislation Committee, Chair
- Shelby County Legislation Committee
2021-2022
Carns was assigned to the following committees:
- Children and Senior Advocacy Committee
- Commerce and Small Business Committee, Chair
- Shelby County Legislation Committee
- Jefferson County Legislation Committee, Chair
- Energy Policy Committee (Decommissioned)
2019-2020
Carns was assigned to the following committees:
- Children and Senior Advocacy Committee
- Commerce and Small Business Committee, Chair
- Jefferson County Legislation Committee, Chair
- Shelby County Legislation Committee
- Ways and Means General Fund Committee
2015 legislative session
At the beginning of the 2015 legislative session, Carns served on the following committees:
| Alabama committee assignments, 2015 |
|---|
| • Children and Senior Advocacy |
| • Commerce and Small Business |
| • County and Municipal Government |
| • Shelby County Legislation |
Sponsored legislation
The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according to BillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.
Elections
2022
See also: Alabama House of Representatives elections, 2022
General election
General election for Alabama House of Representatives District 48
Incumbent Jim Carns defeated Bruce Stutts in the general election for Alabama House of Representatives District 48 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Jim Carns (R) | 84.7 | 12,518 |
 | Bruce Stutts (L) | 14.8 | 2,184 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.6 | 84 | ||
| Total votes: 14,786 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Republican primary election
Republican primary for Alabama House of Representatives District 48
Incumbent Jim Carns defeated William Wentowski in the Republican primary for Alabama House of Representatives District 48 on May 24, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Jim Carns | 70.1 | 5,207 |
 | William Wentowski | 29.9 | 2,217 | |
| Total votes: 7,424 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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2018
General election
General election for Alabama House of Representatives District 48
Incumbent Jim Carns defeated Alli Summerford in the general election for Alabama House of Representatives District 48 on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Jim Carns (R) | 65.3 | 14,789 |
 | Alli Summerford (D) | 34.6 | 7,832 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 15 | ||
| Total votes: 22,636 (100.00% precincts reporting) | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Alabama House of Representatives District 48
Alli Summerford advanced from the Democratic primary for Alabama House of Representatives District 48 on June 5, 2018.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | | Alli Summerford |
| ||||
| = 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 Alabama House of Representatives District 48
Incumbent Jim Carns defeated William Wentowski in the Republican primary for Alabama House of Representatives District 48 on June 5, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Jim Carns | 76.6 | 4,554 |
| William Wentowski | 23.4 | 1,395 | |
| Total votes: 5,949 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
2014
Elections for the Alabama House of Representatives took place in 2014. A primary election took place on June 3, 2014; a runoff election took place where necessary on July 15, 2014. The general election was held on November 4, 2014. The signature filing deadline for candidates wishing to run in this election was February 7, 2014. Incumbent Jim Carns was unopposed in the Republican primary and was unchallenged in the general election.[3][4][5][6]
2011
A special election was scheduled for November 29, 2011. However, since no Democrats filed for the seat, Carns took office after winning the August 30, 2011 Republican primary. He defeated Craig Sanderson.[7]
Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Jim Carns did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
Endorsements
Presidential preference
2012
Jim Carns endorsed Newt Gingrich in the 2012 presidential election.[8]
2016 Republican National Convention
- See also: Republican National Convention, 2016
Carns was an at-large delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention from Alabama. He was bound by state party rules to support Donald Trump at the convention.
Delegate rules
At-large and congressional district delegates from Alabama to the 2016 Republican National Convention were elected directly by voters in the state primary election. 2016 Alabama GOP bylaws required delegates to vote at the convention for the candidate to whom they pledged an oath on their qualifying form for all ballots—unless that candidate released them to vote for another candidate or two-thirds of the delegates pledged to a particular candidate voted to release themselves.
Alabama primary results
- See also: Presidential election in Alabama, 2016
| Alabama Republican Primary, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes | Delegates | |
 Donald Trump |
43.4% | 373,721 | 36 | |
| Ted Cruz | 21.1% | 181,479 | 13 | |
| Marco Rubio | 18.7% | 160,606 | 1 | |
| Ben Carson | 10.2% | 88,094 | 0 | |
| John Kasich | 4.4% | 38,119 | 0 | |
| Jeb Bush | 0.5% | 3,974 | 0 | |
| Chris Christie | 0.1% | 858 | 0 | |
| Carly Fiorina | 0.1% | 544 | 0 | |
| Lindsey Graham | 0% | 253 | 0 | |
| Mike Huckabee | 0.3% | 2,539 | 0 | |
| Rand Paul | 0.2% | 1,895 | 0 | |
| Rick Santorum | 0.1% | 617 | 0 | |
| Other | 0.9% | 7,953 | 0 | |
| Totals | 860,652 | 50 | ||
| Source: AlabamaVotes.gov | ||||
Delegate allocation
Alabama had 50 delegates at the 2016 Republican National Convention. Of this total, 21 were district-level delegates (three for each of the state's seven congressional districts). Alabama's district-level delegates were allocated on a proportional basis; a candidate had to win at least 20 percent of the vote in a congressional district in order to have received any of that district's delegates. The highest vote-getter in a district was allocated two of the district's three delegates; the second highest vote-getter received the remaining delegate. If only one candidate met the 20 percent threshold in a district, he or she won all of the district's delegates. If no candidate won at least 20 percent of the vote, then the 20 percent threshold was discarded. If a candidate won more than 50 percent of the vote in a district, he or she received all three of that district's delegates.[9][10]
Of the remaining 29 delegates, 26 served at large. At-large delegates were allocated on a proportional basis; a candidate must have won 20 percent of the statewide vote in order to have received a share of the state's at-large delegates. If a candidate won more than 50 percent of the statewide vote, he or she was allocated all of Alabama's at-large delegates. In addition, three national party leaders (identified on the chart below as RNC delegates) served as bound delegates to the Republican National Convention.[9][10]
Scorecards
A scorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.
Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.
Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states. To contribute to the list of Alabama scorecards, email suggestions to editor@ballotpedia.org.
2024
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2024, click [show]. |
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In 2024, the Alabama State Legislature was in session from February 6 to May 9.
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2023
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2023, click [show]. |
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In 2023, the Alabama State Legislature was in session from March 7 to June 6.
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2022
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2022, click [show]. |
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In 2022, the Alabama State Legislature was in session from January 11 to April 7.
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2021
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2021, click [show]. |
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In 2021, the Alabama State Legislature was in session from February 2 to May 17.
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2020
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2020, click [show]. |
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In 2020, the Alabama State Legislature was in session from February 4 to May 18.
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2019
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2019, click [show]. |
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In 2019, the Alabama State Legislature was in session from March 5 through May 31.
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2018
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2018, click [show]. |
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In 2018, the Alabama State Legislature was in session from January 9 to March 29.
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2017
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2017, click [show]. |
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In 2017, the Alabama State Legislature was in session from February 7 through May 19.
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2016
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2016, click [show]. |
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In 2016, the Alabama State Legislature was in session from February 2 through May 4. The Legislature held a special session from August 15 to September 7.
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2015
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2015, click [show]. |
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In 2015, the Alabama State Legislature was in session from March 3 through June 4.
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2014
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2014, click [show]. |
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In 2014, the Alabama State Legislature was in session from January 14 through April 4.
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See also
2022 Elections
- Alabama House of Representatives
- House Committees
- Alabama State Legislature
- Alabama state legislative districts
- Republican National Convention, 2016
- 2016 presidential nominations: calendar and delegate rules
- RNC delegate guidelines from Alabama, 2016
- Republican delegate rules by state, 2016
External links
|
Candidate Alabama House of Representatives District 48 |
Officeholder Alabama House of Representatives District 48 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Alabama GOP, "2016 Republican National Convention Delegates," accessed April 11, 2016
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedabout - ↑ Alabama Democrats, "Qualified candidates for public office list," accessed February 27, 2014
- ↑ Alabama Republican Party, "State Senate," accessed February 27, 2014
- ↑ Alabama Secretary of State, "Official Democratic Primary Results," accessed June 20, 2014
- ↑ Alabama Secretary of State, "Official Republican Primary Results," accessed June 20, 2014
- ↑ Al.com, "Jim Carns wins in Alabama House District 48; Tommy Joe Alexander, Dickie Drake in runoff in House District 45," August 30, 2011
- ↑ Newt Gingrich 2012, "Newt 2012 Announces Alabama Leadership Team," March 12, 2012
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Republican National Committee, "2016 Presidential Nominating Process," accessed October 6, 2015
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 CNN.com, "Republican National Convention roll call vote," accessed July 20, 2016
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by - |
Alabama House of Representatives District 48 2011-Present |
Succeeded by - |
