1982 Alabama Senate election

1982 Alabama Senate election

← 1978 November 2, 1982 1983 sp. →
All 35 seats in the Alabama State Senate 18 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Leader Finis St. John III (did not stand) — Party Democratic Republican Leader since January 9, 1979 — Leader's seat 4th–Cullman — Last election 35 seats, 68.9% 0 seats, 30.4% Seats before 35 0 Seats won 32 3 Seat change 3 3 Popular vote 683,395 115,303 Percentage 85.37% 14.40%
District results Democratic:      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90%      90–100%      Unopposed Republican:      50–60%      60–70%
President pro tempore before election Finis St. John Democratic Elected President pro tempore Democratic

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Government
v t e

The 1982 Alabama Senate election took place on Tuesday, November 2, 1982, to elect 35 representatives to serve four-year terms in the Alabama Senate. Primary elections were held on September 7 with runoff elections on September 28. The state's three Black senators, Michael Figures, Earl Hilliard, and J. Richmond Pearson, all won re-election. The Republicans won three seats at the general election, its best showing of the entire century up to that point.

This was the first time a Republican had been elected to the state senate since Leland Childs was elected in 1966, who himself had been the first Republican elected to the chamber since the Reconstruction Era. The Republicans also made history by electing Ann Bedsole of Mobile to District 34, the state's first-ever female state senator. Across both houses, Republicans were elected to 11 of the 140 legislative seats, the most since Reconstruction.^[1]

Democrat John Teague was unanimously elected President pro tempore on January 11, 1983.^[2] The map used in the 1982 general election was struck down the next year for violating the Voting Rights Act of 1965, requiring a new map to be drawn. A special election for every seat in the legislature was held in November 1983.

Party		Candidates			Seats
		Num.	Vote	%	Before	Won	+/–
	Democratic	35	683,395	85.37%	35	32	3
	Republican	10	115,303	14.40%	0	3	3
	NDPA	1	1,734	0.22%	0	0
	Write-in		42	0.01%	—	0
Total		46	800,474	100%	35

District	Democratic			Republican			Others			Total
	Candidate	Votes	%	Candidate	Votes	%	Candidate	Votes	%	Votes	Maj.	Mrg.
11th	Roger Lee	13,093	34.57%	William J. Cabaniss	24,786	65.43%	—	—	—	37,879	−11,693	−30.87%
12th	John Amari	20,892	76.46%	Red Walker	6,433	23.54%	—	—	—	27,325	+14,459	+52.91%
17th	Dale Corley	11,953	33.67%	Spencer Bachus	23,543	66.33%	—	—	—	35,496	−11,590	−32.65%
20th	Donald G. Holmes (inc.)	18,949	76.98%	Charles H. Green	5,667	23.02%	—	—	—	24,616	+13,282	+53.96%
22nd	Danny Corbett	14,803	67.31%	Sam Pierce	7,181	32.65%	Write-in	8	0.04%	21,992	+7,622	+34.66%
23rd	Foy Covington	23,928	84.71%	Chris Bence	2,584	9.15%	Bill Johnston (NDPA)	1,734	6.14%	28,246	+21,344	+75.56%
29th	Earl Goodwin (inc.)	25,733	82.93%	John J. Grimes Jr.	5,293	17.06%	Write-in	1	0.01%	31,027	+20,440	+65.88%
32nd	Jerry Boyington	16,519	55.68%	Perry Hand	13,149	44.32%	—	—	—	29,668	+3,370	+11.36%
34th	John E. Saad	15,368	48.08%	Ann Bedsole	16,596	51.92%	Jean Sullivan (write-in)	2	0.01%	31,966	−1,228	−3.84%
35th	Bill Menton	13,008	56.36%	Gary Tanner	10,071	43.64%	—	—	—	23,079	+2,937	+12.73%

Candidates in boldface advanced to the general election. An asterisk (*) denotes a runoff winner who was the runner-up in the first round.

District	Winner			Loser			Total
	Candidate	Votes	%	Candidate	Votes	%	Votes	Maj.	Mrg.
2nd	Roger Bedford	22,365	55.33%	Robbie Martin	18,056	44.67%	40,421	+4,309	+10.66%
3rd	Gary Aldridge	14,208	50.16%	Ray Campbell	14,117	49.84%	28,325	+91	+0.32%
8th	Lowell Barron	13,618	50.65%	James Lemaster (inc.)	13,268	49.35%	26,886	+350	+1.30%
22nd	Danny Corbett*	10,753	53.54%	G. J. Higginbotham (inc.)	9,330	46.46%	20,083	+1,423	+7.09%
23rd	Foy Covington Jr.	16,762	56.86%	Boyd Whigham	12,719	43.14%	29,481	+4,043	+13.71%
29th	Earl Goodwin (inc.)*	17,264	51.10%	Hank Sanders	16,522	48.90%	33,786	+742	+2.20%
35th	Bill Menton	9,688	53.11%	George Stewart	8,553	46.89%	18,241	+1,135	+6.22%

Candidates in boldface advanced to either the general election or a runoff, first-place winners with an asterisk (*) did not face a runoff.

District	First place			Runners-up			Others			Total
	Candidate	Votes	%	Candidate	Votes	%	Candidate	Votes	%	Votes	Maj.	Mrg.
2nd	Roger Bedford	15,793	39.41%	Robbie Martin	12,672	31.62%	2 others [a]	11,607	28.97%	4,0072	+3,121	+7.79%
3rd	Gary Aldridge	11,482	49.30%	Ray Campbell	9,991	42.89%	Gary Peters	1,819	7.81%	23,292	+1,491	+6.40%
4th	Steve Cooley*	11,837	65.63%	Murray A. Battles	6,198	34.37%	—	—	—	18,035	+5,639	+31.27%
5th	Charles Bishop*	10,182	53.51%	Johnny Howell	5,306	27.88%	Bill Kitchens	3,541	18.61%	19,029	+4,876	+25.62%
7th	Bill Smith (inc.)*	11,155	59.42%	Jim Gaines	7,618	40.58%	—	—	—	18,773	+3,537	+18.84%
8th	Lowell Barron	8,393	34.28%	James Lemaster (inc.)	8,099	33.08%	Buck Watson	7,992	32.64%	24,484	+294	+1.20%
10th	Larry Keener (inc.)*	15,952	50.82%	Barbara Bryant	7,940	25.29%	2 others[b]	7,500	23.89%	31,392	+8,012	+25.52%
12th	John Amari*	12,582	57.56%	Bob Gafford	9,278	42.44%	—	—	—	21,860	+3,304	+15.11%
17th	Lucile White*	11,015	51.78%	Bob Cook (inc.)	10,257	48.22%	—	—	—	21,272	+758	+3.56%
20th	Donald Holmes (inc.)*	14,697	63.83%	Tom Shelton	5,149	22.36%	2 others[c]	3,178	13.80%	23,024	+9,548	+41.47%
22nd	G. J. Higginbotham (inc.)	7,878	38.84%	Danny Corbett	7,127	35.13%	2 others[d]	5,280	26.03%	20,285	+751	+3.70%
23rd	Foy Covington	7,150	22.99%	Boyd Whigham	6,946	22.33%	3 others[e]	17,011	54.69%	31,107	+204	+0.66%
24th	Chip Bailey (inc.)*	16,998	66.97%	Matt Bullard	8,382	33.03%	—	—	—	25,380	+8,616	+33.95%
25th	Crum Foshee*	15,244	50.32%	Wallace Miller (inc.)	15,050	49.68%	—	—	—	30,294	+194	+0.64%
26th	Don Harrison (inc.)*	10,665	53.73%	John M. Smith	5,995	30.20%	Walter Daniel	3,188	16.06%	19,848	+4,670	+23.53%
27th	Larry Dixon*	13,994	52.27%	Barry Teague (inc.)	12,778	47.73%	—	—	—	26,772	+1,216	+4.54%
28th	Wendell Mitchell*	14,985	53.58%	Cordy Taylor (inc.)	6,199	22.16%	2 others [f]	6,786	24.26%	27,970	+8,786	+31.41%
29th	Hank Sanders	13,139	38.95%	Earl Goodwin (inc.)	10,633	31.52%	Leigh Pegues	9,958	29.52%	33,730	+2,506	+7.43%
30th	Ed Robertson (inc.)*	17,164	52.35%	Bert Bank	15,625	47.65%	—	—	—	32,789	+1,539	+4.69%
31st	Reo Kirkland Jr. (inc.)*	16,149	52.73%	J. W. Sales	8,656	28.27%	J. W. Owens	5,819	19.00%	30,624	+7,493	+24.47%
32nd	Jerry Boyington*	12,604	60.15%	Bob Gulledge (inc.)	8,351	39.85%	—	—	—	20,955	+4,253	+20.30%
33rd	Michael Figures (inc.)*	12,999	61.92%	John A. Sanderson	7,994	38.08%	—	—	—	20,993	+5,005	+23.84%
34th	John Saad*	17,338	77.75%	Gary P. Alidor	4,962	22.25%	—	—	—	22,300	+12,376	+55.50%
35th	Bill Menton	7,588	40.93%	George Stewart	5,184	27.97%	2 others[g]	5,765	31.10	18,537	+2,404	+12.97%

The following candidates won the Democratic nomination by default as they were the only to run in their respective district:^[6]

Only District 17, consisting of portions of Jefferson and Shelby counties, saw more than one candidate run in the Republican primary.

District 17 Republican primary

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Spencer Bachus	1,180	68.21%
	Republican	Gilbert F. Douglas III	550	31.79%
Total votes			1,730	100.00%

The following candidates won the Republican nomination by default as they were the only to run in their respective district:^[7]

The following candidates withdrew before their respective primaries:

• District 12: Jim Harris^[9]
• District 17: Jack Wright^[9]
• District 26: Mike Kolen^[10]

Only one third-party candidate appeared on a state senate ballot. W. D. "Bill" Johnston ran as the nominee of the National Democratic Party of Alabama in Senate District 23, consisting of Bullock, Macon, Pike, and portions of Barbour, Dale, and Henry counties.^[11]

One independent candidate, Jean Sullivan of Mobile, failed to qualify for the District 34 race.^[12] Sullivan was a Republican National Committeewoman and had come close to winning a August 1976 special election in Senate District 29 as a Republican, losing by a margin of less than one percentage point. She decided to mount a write-in campaign and attended a candidate forum on October 27.^[13] Sullivan won two votes according to the official results.

A special election for District 15, in Birmingham, was triggered after incumbent Democratic senator U. W. Clemon resigned on June 30, 1980, after being appointed to a federal judgeship. With no Republican or independent candidates, the election was decided in the Democratic primary between state representatives Earl Hilliard and Tony Harrison, and dentist T. L. Alexander. Hilliard won a majority of votes in the first round of the Democratic primary, so no runoff was necessary. Both Clemon and his successor were Black.

1980 Alabama Senate District 15 special Democratic primary
September 2, 1980^[14]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Earl Hilliard	4,710	55.71%
	Democratic	Tony Harrison	2,126	25.15%
	Democratic	T. L. Alexander	1,619	19.15%
Total votes			8,455	100.00%
	Democratic hold

1980 Alabama Senate District 15 special election
November 4, 1980

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Earl Hilliard	Unopp.
	Democratic hold

A special election for District 27, in Montgomery, was triggered after incumbent Democratic senator Bishop Berry resigned after being appointed to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals.^[15] Although state representative Larry Dixon was the preferred candidate of the county Democratic executive committee, former U.S. Attorney Barry Teague was nominated over Dixon by the state Democratic Executive Committee after a mail-in vote in early 1982. The Republican Party failed to nominate a candidate, and Teague's only opposition in the general election was the Alabama Conservative Party's Gordon Tucker, who was the Republican Party nominee for President of the Public Service Commission in 1980.^[16]

1982 Alabama Senate District 27 special convention
March 1982^[15]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Barry Teague	78	77.23%
	Democratic	Larry Dixon	23	22.77%
Total votes			101	100.00%
	Democratic hold

1982 Alabama Senate District 27 special election
April 6, 1982^[17]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Barry Teague	2,403	76.48%
	Alabama Conservative	Gordon Tucker	739	23.52%
Total votes			3,142	100.00%
	Democratic hold

• 1982 Alabama elections
  • 1982 United States House of Representatives elections in Alabama
  • 1982 Alabama gubernatorial election
• 1982 United States elections