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.
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.
1979–1982 special elections
District 15
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]
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]
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