Alabama House leadership outline legislative priorities post-midterm election

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - Alabama republicans still have control of the House of Representatives, but they did lose a few seats to democrats in the midterms.

Republicans maintained their supermajority in the chamber.

“We’ve heard the voters and we understand that they’re hurting,” said Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville. “We understand that they need more help locally to bring better jobs, higher-paying jobs.”

Speaker Ledbetter said members of the Alabama republican party met over the past few days, and that they will have a renewed focus on the issues that matter most to Alabama, and not Washington, D.C.

He said the ongoing war in Iran and higher gas prices have hurt republicans nationally.

“It’s kitchen-table issues. We have to make it more affordable for Alabamians to live. People are hurting right now,” he said. “A lot of that, the Alabama government and Alabama legislature, we had nothing to do with that, but we have got to try to maybe slow down what’s going on as far as the increase in groceries and things like that.

Democrats flipped two seats in the House chamber. Rep. Leigh Hulsey, R-Helena, lost to democrat Nell Brown, and Rep. Phillip Rigsby, R-Huntsville, lost to democrat Allison Montgomery.

“I think that this should shift the legislature and its priorities to being more about affordability and less about following the rhetoric of the national level and if they don’t learn from that, it will be worse in 2030,” said House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels, D-Huntsville, in an interview Thursday.

According to Speaker Ledbetter, Alabamians can expect a focus on cutting taxes, including following through on a bipartisan push to eliminate the state’s grocery tax.

READ MORE: Alabama lawmakers join bipartisan push to eliminate state’s grocery tax

He also said they will look to continue improving the state’s education system and infrastructure projects.

The 2027 legislative session starts in February at the new Alabama State House.

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