Alabama’s top ten stories in 2022

2022 is winding down. Now is a good time to look back on the year that was and remember the political news that impacted our lives here in Alabama.

Katie Britt wins the Senate.

Britt had never held a public office before, was not a self-made multi-millionaire with her own corporation, was not a war hero, and was not a household name. Yet the mom from Enterprise managed to put together a diverse band of supporters that included among its ranks both the rich and powerful and thousands of just everyday ordinary Alabama folks. Alabama does not change Senators very often. Richard Shelby, whom she replaces, spent the last 44 years in Congress. At age 40, Britt is young enough to potentially duplicate that feat.

Republicans hold onto their supermajorities in the Alabama Legislature.

The Alabama Legislature is nationally recognized as the most conservative legislature in the entire country. Republicans entered the 2022 election cycle with the daunting challenge of defending 77 seats in the Alabama House of Representatives and 27 seats in the Alabama Senate. Alabama voters showed that they liked what the legislature did in the last four years and will enter the new quadrennium with the same historic filibuster-proof majorities they had in the previous four years. Republicans in the legislature can work across the aisle in the spirit of bipartisan cooperation if they want to. They can also ram through whatever red-meat agenda items that the GOP wants. Alabama Democrats in the legislature can do little to stop them.

Alabama prisons are still horrible.

Alabama prisons are overcrowded, woefully understaffed, do a poor job of rehabilitating prisoners, and according to a report by the Department of Justice, are the most dangerous in the country. This has all been well documented. The only conclusion that is possible to reach is that the people of Alabama just don’t care how we treat our prisoners. The Bureau of Pardons and Paroles has been hesitant to release prisoners. The state has 70, 80, and even 100-year-old prisons housing far more prisoners than they were designed to hold. The state has had to suspend executions because of botched attempts in which the state failed in its efforts to kill the condemned man. The state is trying to hire more prison guards, and the Alabama Department of Corrections has begun work on building two new mega prisons in Elmore and Escambia Counties. Time will tell if these efforts will satisfy the federal government, which is suing the state because they believe our prisons are so wretched that incarceration in Alabama constitutes a “cruel and unusual punishment” in violation of the Eight Amendment of the Bill of Rights.

Kay Ivey was re-elected as governor.

Ivey entered 2022 as the oldest governor in the country and one of the most popular. Ivey was challenged by a self-made millionaire, a former governor’s son, successful businessmen, a mayor and former legislator, a prison guard and former county commissioner, and a conspiracy theorist preacher in the Republican primary. They all blasted Ivey’s tenure as governor and said they could do a better job. The voters ignored millions of dollars in negative ads, rumors about the governor’s health, and her refusal to debate, and Ivey won the GOP primary without a runoff. Ivey then faced a woefully underfunded Democrat, a Libertarian, and two write-in candidates. Seventeen people ran for governor in 2022, and Ivey coasted to re-election.

The Alabama Democratic Party imploded.

America has a two-party system. Democrats have a one-seat majority in the U.S. Senate, and Republicans have a slim majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. Democrats won the presidential election in 2020, and Republicans won in 2016. Either party could be in charge in 2024. The nation could not be more evenly divided – not so in Alabama. Every Republican nominee for a statewide office prevailed in Alabama’s 2022, and it was not even close. In fact, the Republican domination surprised no one as only one Democrat, Doug Jones in 2017, has won a statewide race since 2008. The Alabama Democratic Party (ADP) was hemorrhaging money so badly that the state director and most staff quit weeks before the election. ADP Chairman State Rep. Chris England announced leadership elections before the elections and that he was not running again. Randy Kelley, deposed with the blessing of the Democratic National Committee in a bizarre ADP power struggle in 2019 as vice chair, was elected Chairman of the ADP in August. The Joe Reed and Alabama Democratic Conference-supported Chairman found the party with no money, weak candidates, no donors, and no hope. The party was effectively steamrolled outside of majority-minority Black legislative districts.

Alabama legislature passed permitless carry.

Despite the best efforts of anti-gun groups and the Alabama Sheriffs Association, constitutional carry passed the Alabama Legislature in 2022. Every Alabamian who still has their gun rights will be able to carry their handguns concealed on their person or in their vehicle without purchasing a permit from their local sheriff starting Sunday, January 1. The concealed carry bill was the most controversial item to pass the legislature in 2022. State Rep. Shane Stringer and State Sen. Gerald Allen successfully carried that legislation to the finish line.

Legal medical marijuana moved much closer to reality.

The Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission passed rules and regulations for the new industry in 2022, and the deadline for persons to turn in an application to get a state of Alabama license to be a marijuana grower, processor, transporter, dispenser, or operate an integrated facility that does all of the above in house is on Friday, December 30. The Commission will award the licenses in June, and the first legally sold Alabama-raised marijuana will be available by late 2023.

Financial strength prevailed in 2022.

Unemployment is historically low, wages are rising, and the state is receiving record streams of tax money. In 2022 the state legislature passed record education trust fund and state general fund budgets for fiscal year 2023 and rolled hundreds of millions of dollars in surplus funds from fiscal year 2022 into FY2023. Not only is proration in the coming session not likely, but there is also the possibility of tax rebates and large supplemental appropriations into the already record sized 2023 fiscal year budgets.

The U.S. Supreme Court intervened in Alabama’s Congressional redistricting case.

In 2021, the Alabama Legislature held a special session where legislators passed Republican-friendly redistricting plans. Alabama has seven congressional districts. Six are majority White and Republican-leaning. One is majority Black and Democrat. Democrats and civil rights groups argued that since Alabama is 27 percent Black, it should have two majority-minority congressional districts. A three-judge federal appeals court panel agreed and ordered the state to redraw the districts. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall and Gov. Ivey appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court intervened in the case blocking the lower court’s ruling allowing Alabama’s congressional elections to proceed with the districts as drawn by the Alabama Legislature. Republicans won all six of the seats they have held since 2010, and the lone Democratic incumbent Rep. Terri Sewell won her race. None of the seven general election races were ever really even close. The Supreme Court’s final ruling will be released in 2023 and could have repercussions far beyond Alabama.

3,987 Alabamians died from COVID-19 in 2022.

According to the Alabama Department of Public Health, 3,987 Alabamians died from COVID-19 in 2022, and thousands of Alabamians are suffering from the virus as we write this. COVID-19 is the story that no one wants to hear about anymore, but 2022 showed no let up in the number of COVID cases in the state or in the controversy about the vaccine. According to ADPH, 622,240 Alabamians were diagnosed with COVID-19 in 2022 alone, taking the number of cases the state has experienced up to 1,568,534. Alabamians remain hesitant about getting booster shots for the vaccine, and nobody is for shutting the economy down to stop the spread of the virus. The number of COVID-19 cases in the state has increased all three years of the pandemic. To this point, our efforts to control the global pandemic have failed, and the virus has become endemic in the population. Expect more COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths in the new year.

To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.