Allison Montgomery won Alabama House District 25 on Tuesday night, defeating Republican incumbent Phillip Rigsby and becoming the state’s first transgender legislator. The called the race with Montgomery ahead 53% to 47% with more than 95% of the estimated vote counted.
The result was one of three Northern Alabama seats that flipped Tuesday night, a sign that the district moved in a larger wave even as Montgomery’s win carried its own history. For voters, it settled a race that had been closely watched because it could change who speaks for the district in the Alabama House.
Montgomery, a software engineer, campaigned on affordability and divestment from corporate interests, and those issues gave her a clear lane with voters looking for a break from the usual pitch. Her message was aimed at the costs people feel every day, not at party labels, and it was carried by a candidate who made policy the center of her run.
But the campaign was not fought only on those terms. During the race, Montgomery faced attacks over her gender identity, including from Scott Stadthagen, and she answered in public by posting on Facebook: “Republican politicians always point to vague concerns about 'the children' when talking about women like myself, while Republican Rep. Brett Easterbrook gets arrested for soliciting sex with a minor.” Her victory made that fight part of the record, not the end of it.
After the race was called, Montgomery posted a victory message on social media, closing a contest that now carries both immediate political weight and a historic mark for Alabama. The next question is whether her win becomes only a first, or whether it also gives her room to press the affordability message that carried her into the seat.
