Pro-Choice AL Dem Flips Deeply Red Seat In Election To Replace GOP State Rep Who Pled Guilty To Voter Fraud

The Alabama Reflector reports:

Democratic candidate Marilyn Lands, who campaigned on ending Alabama’s near-total abortion ban and protecting access to contraception and in vitro fertilization, won a special election Tuesday for a Huntsville-area state House seat.

Lands will succeed former Rep. David Cole, R-Madison, who resigned in August after pleading guilty to voter fraud charges. In a statement, Lands said that “Alabama women and families sent a clear message that will be heard in Montgomery and across the nation.”

Lands’ win marks the first net gain for the Democrats in either chamber of the Alabama Legislature since 2002, when they picked up a seat in the Alabama Senate.

The Birmingham News reports:

Marilyn Lands’ victory in Alabama should be a “major warning sign” to Donald Trump after the Democrat made the state Supreme Court’s controversial in vitro fertilization ruling a cornerstone of her successful campaign Tuesday in flipping a state House seat from red to blue, Joe Biden’s campaign manager said.

“Last month, Alabamans [sic] lost access to fertility treatments because of Donald Trump. Tonight, the voters in Alabama’s 10th House District elected a pro-choice champion in Marilyn Lands, sending Trump and extreme MAGA Republicans a clear message: they know exactly who’s to blame for restricting their ability to decide how and when to build their families and they’re ready to fight back,” said Biden-Harris Campaign Manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez.

In the Huntsville AL area, Democrats have flipped state House District 10 tonight. In 2022, Marilyn Lands (D) lost by about 7 points. This time, she won by almost 25%, sweeping nearly everything.

This was a stronger margin here than Doug Jones’s 23-point spread from 2017. pic.twitter.com/NUlH8cZEeF

— J. Miles Coleman (@JMilesColeman) March 27, 2024