Wiregrass voters help Moore secure 1st Congressional District Republican nomination

DOTHAN, Ala. (WDHN) — Now that Barry Moore has come away with a victory in the Republican bid for Alabama’s First Congressional District, he promises people one thing, and that’s reliability.

“I think they just expect continued service and accessibility and we get back when folks call us,” says Moore.

Moore was able to defeat his opponent Jerry Carl in a rare election featuring two incumbents. In the weeks leading up to the election, it seemed as if both men had a realistic chance to come away victorious.

Tuesday night was filled with even more drama and anticipation as it became a back-and-forth battle.

Moore said he knew that he would need a lot of support from the Wiregrass to come out on top.

“As the Wiregrass counties came in, and we saw that we were 83%, 81%, 79%, we knew we had to do well over there,” Moore says. “We were thinking if we could do 65% in the existing area, and do ok in Baldwin and mobile, that we would have a shot.”

And he did just that.

Moore received overwhelming support from Wiregrass voters and in the end was able to come away with 51% of total votes.

After seeing his chances of winning slip away from him, Carl took the stand where he went on to concede after being down over 3,000 votes.

Even in defeat, Moore says that Carl is still willing to lend a helping hand if needed.

“I thought that he was gracious, in the way he handled it, he said he would help me moving forward,” Moore says. “We’ve already talked; my chief has talked to his chief today. We’re looking at how we can connect our team with the team over there, and make sure that we can continue to serve the new area.”

With this victory, Moore will have a chance to represent nine counties in southern Alabama. Thanks in part to a redrawn congressional map that was approved by the Supreme Court last year.

Moore will now face off against the democratic primary, Tom Holmes, who ran uncontested.

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