Posted on 05/23/2022 6:19:06 AM PDT by cotton1706
The last time Alabama hosted a U.S. Senate and governor’s primary runoff on the same day, Jimmy Carter was president and the Democratic Party ruled Alabama.
It was in September 1978, slightly less than 44 years ago when two Senate runoff contests – a regularly-scheduled Democratic race won by Howell Heflin, and Democratic special election runoff won by Donald Stewart to fill a vacant seat – coincided with a lively governor’s race that also went to a runoff.
The winner of the governor’s runoff on September 26, 1978? Fob James, father of Tim James who is attempting to push incumbent Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey into a runoff during Tuesday’s GOP primary.
“This is an unusual cycle that, as you can see, it’s not often a U.S. Senate seat ends up on a gubernatorial year,” said Jon Gray, a Mobile-based Republican campaign strategist. “I do think this year has the possibility that both of them could end up in a runoff.”
The prospects of runoffs in Alabama’s two biggest primary contests on Tuesday looms as the biggest storyline for next week. Runoff elections will occur on June 21 in any race concluding on Tuesday without a candidate receiving more than 50% of the overall vote.
Another potential first also looms: Katie Britt could be one step closer to becoming the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from Alabama.
(Excerpt) Read more at al.com ...
The 50% rule is stupid. Run a bunch of candidates and you’ll never reach it.
>>The 50% rule is stupid. Run a bunch of candidates and you’ll never reach it.
Agreed, it’s essentially a slow and expensive Ranked Choice Voting implementation.
Polling I see doesn’t show anyone near 50% Britt has the most, but no one is even close, so it looks like the run off will be Britt vs Brooks...
Guess we’ll see soon enough.
Personally not a fan of run off elections in general, but is what it is.
I think it’s the best way to pick a good one.
They have to keep running, though, until a clear winner emerges. The bottom half is eliminated (?)
Not having some kind of threshold is stupid. Imagine a field of 10 candidates and the top vote getter gets 12%.
I’m changing my opinion....just because you can load it wih candidates.
Agreed.
Without the 50% rule you get the situation in the PA senate race. The moderates run a second “conservative” candidate to split the conservative vote so the moderate wins.
They have been doing that in TN for decades.
Britt = RINO, and the rest of the candidates are just as bad.
Ivey, present Gov, is a lockdown fanatic. She can buy enough votes to get back in. Just another reason for me to stay home tomorrow.
You are nuts if you think OZ or MCOrmick are conservative…. Let alone that Barnette got a penny of help from the establishment
PA was an outlier. Trump didn’t endorse the conservative in that race. Trump’s endorsement can skew the results, which is a good thing.
But the principle still applies. A 3 way race can split votes, which can allow the moderate to get in.
I have seen this happen too many times in TN, especially the governors race. A second ‘conservative’ with no chance of winning splits the conservative vote, allowing the moderate to win.
Runoffs are essential as long as they are not open elections.
Keeps Rinos out, by not allowing their election via a minority of vote from an overloaded field.
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