Better Know a District: Alabama's 2nd

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Renamed and continuing this series.

Alabama's 2nd is based in the SE of the state. Most of the area of the state is taken up the Wiregrass region, notable for mid-size cities like Dothan, Enterprise and Troy, domination by peanut farming (supposedly the region "diversified" after the previous staple cotton was wiped out by boll weevil, although I would quibble its not really diversification if you merely replace one crop with another). The district also snakes up through the middle of Montgomery County (including much of the city) to swallow Elmore and Autauga counties, which seem to be basically suburbs of Montgomery. The district is also strongly military oriented with a big air base, an army base and Troy University (which caters for military students).

In 1964 (following the restoration of districts in Alabama after a brief period of statewide elections) the seat would fall to the Republicans, with Willliam Dickinson defeating longtime Democratic incumbent George M Grant (the latter having already being hobbled with an arduous primary fight from a literal Nazi). Like all Alabama politicians, Dickinson would go on to spend ages in congress not doing anything very notable beyond representing the big interests of his constituency (peanuts and military).

In 1990, he narrowly scraped back in and was convinced to to retire; then the legislature moved more black parts of Montgomery to the 7th district so they wouldn't have that scare again, and he was succeeded by Terry Everett. Everett is most notable for pushing for big subsidies for peanut farmers, not knowing the difference between Sunni and Shia Muslims despite being on the Intelligence Committee and investigating a strange scandal about whether a dead ambassador had paid the Clinton administration to be interred in Arlington. Following his retirement in 2008, the Democrats made an extremely narrow gain with Montgomery mayor Bobby Bright. He did not get the typical decades long career, despite his conservative leanings, and was narrowly ousted by Martha Roby, a moderate (well, Alabama moderate) Republican. However, Roby herself seems to be quite vulnerable following her spurning of Donald Trump - only narrowly winning re-election with a pretty impressive 22,000 write-ins (mostly for her primary challenger Becky Gerritson).

[BuckeyeNut]

I didn't realize the '08 wave carried so far South. How much more Republican is it post 2010 redistricting than it was in the cycle Bright won?

[Miles]

It was George Wallace's home distict.

I didn't realize the '08 wave carried so far South. How much more Republican is it post 2010 redistricting than it was in the cycle Bright won?

Most of the black precincts in Montgomery were moved to AL-07.

[LLR]

Demographic Data:

67% White, 29% Black, 2% Hispanic

Median income: $32,460

District Created: 1823

Political Data:

PVI: R+17

Last election won by current opposing party: 2008 (Bobby Bright)

2008: McCain 63, Obama 36
2012: Romney 63, Obama 36
2016: [Fraudulent data]

 

[Gass3268]

[publicunofficial]

Might be a good idea to put these all in one thread.

[Figueira]

So who is going to primary Roby in 2018?