Is from APT Studios in downtown Montgomery.

I'm Todd Stacy, welcome to Capital Journal.

Coming up later in the program, I'll sit down with Veterans Affairs Commissioner Jeff Newton for an update on veterans services in the state.

After that, Democratic pollster Kevin Aikens joins me to unpack the historic election from last week.

And then we'll link up with Kevin Scarbinsky to talk a little football, both high school and college.

So you'll want to stick around for that.

But we begin our coverage this week in the nation's capital, where Congress returned for the first time since Democrat dominated the midterm elections.

Congressman elect Jerr Karl was back in town, taking in new member orientation, even though he previously served two terms.

And Congressma Shomari Figures is settling in for his second term after winning a competitive race last week.

Alex Angle reports from Capitol Hill on what comes next for Alabama's congressional delegation.

More than 100 ne members descended on the Capitol this week to learn the ins and outs of Congress.

Many of them were Democrats who won as part of a national blue wave.

But Republican Congressman elect Jerry Karl stood out among the group, having previously represented the first district for two terms.

It feels like I've never left.

I'm excited about serving my district and the great things we have in store.

Republicans will be in the minority in both chambers next year.

After the midterms, he says the party needs to get better at messaging on the things that matter to all voters, such as affordability.

We do so many small thing up here that does get noticed.

So to get that message back to the people.

We've got to do a better job.

I think that's what we missed it.

I think there's about 10 or 12% of the independents that we are.

We need to be a little more focused on versus just Republicans and Democrats.

Congressman Shomari Figures is also headed back to the Capitol next year after winning reelection in a district redrawn to favor Republicans.

He says he hopes the Democrats use their majority in Congress to focus on affordability, rather than investigation into the Trump administration.

The corruption that we've seen is truly unprecedented, and we're going to have to you know, expose the light on it and shin a light on some of those deals.

But at the end of the day, our first priority has to be making life more affordable and making government work for people here.

Democrats are also eager to reform health care.

Progressives have floated passing Medicare for all while moderates look to make incremental changes.

Figure says it's important to be realisti about what can be accomplished.

While President Donald Trump is still in the white House.

We can work to try to bring back the, Obamacare premium subsidy, help that was there for millions of people to be able to get them back enrolled and back covered, with health care costs.

And so, listen, these are things that we have the capacity to do and thing that I think are more palatable than some of the grander objectives and things that will take a much longer time.

With figures is reelection an Carl taking back his old seat.

Alabama's delegation will remain with five Republicans and two Democrats.

But with Democrats winning control figures and Terry Sewell will wield more influence starting in January.

Reporting on Capitol Hill, Alex Engle, Capitol Journal.

Thank you.

Alex.

Back here in Alabama the state is in post election mode as well.

House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter this week announced he will reappoint the two lawmaker who lead the budget committees.

State Representative Danny Garrett of Trussville will remain chairman of the House Way and Means Education Committee, which oversees the range of state education spending.

And State Representative Rex Reynolds of Huntsville, will remain chairman of the House Ways and Means General Fund Committee.

That, of course, oversee all non-urgent state spending, including Medicaid the Department of Corrections, Aliyah and mental Health.

The legislative session starts on February 2nd and governor elect Tommy Tuberville has named his first top staff hire for his incoming administration.

Jordan Defouxis, will be chie of staff, a position he has held until will send it office the past four years, and Hanna Eddins will be the communications director.

She's been deputy comms director and Tuberville Senate office the last two years and was the lead comms staffer on top of rules campaigns for governor.

Those are big jobs, so congratulations and good luck to them both Tuberville and other Republicans running for statewide office withstoo that blue wave that overcame GOP GOP candidates in other southern states.

Still, Democrats did pick up multiple legislative seats this session.

In the Senate, Democra Jared S+ unseated Republican Sam Gauvin and Democrat Rudolph Drake won the seat held by retiring Republican Tom Butler.

Republican Senator Andrew Jones also lost his reelection bid to Independent Jesse Battles.

That leaves Republicans wit 24 Senate seats, down from 27.

Democrats go from eight seats to ten and battle will hold the remaining seat.

We'll see if he tries to caucus with the Republicans because he previously tried to run as one.

We caught up with Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleto to get his take on the election and what those small but significant gains mean for Democrats looking toward the legislative session.

You know, you come to the table now, there's a different kind of conversation that we have at the table, because now, as those numbers grow, we look at the margin that some of these senators and representatives won by were very single single digit margins.

They had not the double digit margins that they thought that was going to win by.

So you're starting to see people starting to make a change in terms of how they vote and when they come out to turn out.

And so I think those kind of things are going to have to be looked at.

And when senators are voting they're going to have to be very cautious of how they make those votes.

Now, in terms of what's going to be happening in the next four years.

So I think it's going to give us an opportunity to be at the table and have, you know, some parity at the table to give us the ability to be able to negotiate, as we've always had.

You know, I trust the leadershi that that's there with Garland.

Now tha new majority leader, Able Weaver and I'm not worked with he in this capacity of leadership.

But I look forward to that and see what we, we go with in terms of representing the state of Alabama first and yet still without having the Partizan politics dig in.

But when Partizan politics does come, I think that we still have a seat at the table.

There's good news on the education front.

The Alabama school report cards were released Thursday, and the state continues to make incremental progress.

The overall grade for all state public schools combined was an 88.

That's up a point from last year's score of 87 and up four points from the 84 score in 2022.

The improvement is rooted in the state schools doing better in key areas academic achievement, chronic absenteeism, College and career readiness, graduation rate and English language proficiency.

There was also marked improvement at the district level.

There are more.

There are more school districts ever.

There are more school districts than ever earning A grades for the first time, and no schools receiving F grades.

In total, 60 school districts were graded in A that's up from 50 last year and just 24 four years ago.

63 districts earned B grades, 24 earned C's and seven earned D's.

Again, no school distric earned an F for the first time.

Across the state, 23 school systems move up at least one letter grade, while five moved down and special shout outs to Lyndon City Schools, which jumped 15 points from a D to a B, and to Bessemer City Schools, which for the first time did not have a school grade at the F level.

State Superintenden Eric Mackey presented the report cards to the stat Board of Education on Thursday.

He said the steady progress shows that the investments and the policy focus on public schools is working.

Well, today we release our A through F report card for the state and then for all the schools in the state.

And, you know, we were very excited because our state score went up about one and a half points.

Since the first report card went out in 2018.

We we gained about six points on the report card.

And and that's important.

It's important for people to realize that we've continued to test the same subjects.

We've not changed things on the metric.

And so this is all about high quality teaching and learning going on in our schools as we see our schools continuing to grow.

We're also obviously digging into these data school by school, district by district.

Where where did we see the most growth?

Where did we se in some places some regression.

And who's kind of plateaued?

And what do we need to do with those schools that might be regressing to to make sure that they are, you know, enjoying the benefits of this growth next year?

We're always doing that every year.

We want to we want to dissect these scores as many ways as we can.

I'm also really proud of our staff.

I think a lot of people who were around at the time following education remember that, even though the draft law had passed back in 2012, the department had never been able to release one.

And when I came i in the spring of 2018, I said, we will get this done an and we will get it done on time.

Now, we barely got it on time down on time that year.

Got it out right before the first of the year, but now we're running six weeks ahead, where we're not really having any issues with verifying data anymore and, getting that report card out so people can se how their schools are doing and, and schools can see how they're doing.

So very proud of our staff, very proud of this work, but mostly proud of teachers across the state who continue to do high quality work every day for children to provide great opportunities for young people across this state.

Alabama joined the rest of the nation in observing Veterans Day this week.

We were proud to air the Birmingham Veterans Day Parade live on Wednesday, and here in the capital city leaders gathered to mark Veterans Day, thank those who have served this country in uniform and raise awareness for new support tools coming online.

Capital Journal's Randy Scott reports.

You know, the River region community defines military community and there are so many veterans in this community it's important that we stop in and remembe all of those that came before us that were the cloth of this great nation, and allow us to be a part of events like this.

As the base commander of Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Colonel Mike Gallucci has man duties to perform on this day.

It's one of his biggest helping honor the scores of veterans who call Alabama home.

There's an amazing relationship between Maxwell Gunner in the Montgomery Chamber of Commerce that that's that's defined to know better than their recognition as one of the Department of Defense's military to be great at military communities, events, events like this, define wh we are as a military community.

Again thank those who came before us.

A theme speaker at this Veteran's Day observance talked about at length, making sure veterans know how much their service is appreciated, enhancing the quality of life for service members and their families across the Montgomery River region.

That's what makes this community special.

We were named a Great American Defense community, but that's not just an award we received.

It's a standard we live up to every day.

Veterans have left behind families, homes, communities that defend our nation and our values and continu to do so as we stand here today.

And so there are a lot of things we can talk about when it comes to service.

The requirement of courage, the requirement of commitment the requirement of low country, the Alabama Veterans Resource Center is on hand to announce new programs to help make sur veterans get the help they need.

Use your networ in order to help these veterans use your niche.

Figure out how you can volunteer, not just attending veterans events that honor them, but looking at the events that veterans are putting on and making sure you show up and you show your face that you care.

Making sure the work today's veterans, along with future veterans, will continue to reach higher goals.

This region is defined, by the hard work done at our university, our partners out at the 908 helicopter training, my partner at the airport, Colonel Caldwell.

And the work that he does with the, F-35s, this this region defines, military superiority.

And, what we do to ensure victory for our great nation in Montgomery.

Randy Scott, capital Journal.

Thank you.

Randy.

A decade ago, Alabama ranked near the bottom nationally for access to high speed broadband internet.

Now, the governor's office says nine out of ten Alabama addresses can get that high speed internet.

That's up from 1 in 4 in 2021, as Governor Kay Ivey enters her final months in office.

She joined lawmakers and industry leaders at the state Capito this week to mark a milestone.

Alabama's fiber backbone now reaches all 67 counties, giving internet providers a way to extend service to more homes and businesses.

The legislature first started putting money toward broadband in 2018, and federal funding helpe Alabama build out that network.

The governor's office says more than half $1 billion in state and federal funds has gone into broadband infrastructure during Ivey's time in office, with federal grants committed for the next round of projects, that total could approach $1 billion.

Today is a legacy moment.

All of the people in this room helped make it so I'm very proud to be a part of it.

Auburn is essential to a quality of life and offering new business folks to our state.

Well done y'all.

Well done.

Let me tell you something.

Having all 67 countie covered is a phenomenal thing.

I'm going to tell you to see people have the access to internet and the ability to work from home.

Not only that, but also the municipalities and county can go out and execute and recruit industry.

I'm sure we're going to hold ourselves accountable, that we're actually going to get to where we have 100% availability for addresses, addresses in this state, regardless of what county you live in.

Regardless of what you were born into or what you were not born into, what you would do is you'd have the opportunity to have a a place and a space to where your family can have health care.

You have an opportunity to go to work.

You can learn and the many, many different things that can go on here that makes all of our lives better.

The commander of the United States Spac Command was in Alabama Saturday.

He visited Auburn University and observed what he called a strong alignment between spac Command's mission and Auburn's research capabilities.

General Stephen Whiting visited both Auburn's main campus and the Applied Research Institute in Huntsville.

The trip was intended to learn more about the university's growing investments in space research, national security, and workforce development.

General Whiting also attended Auburn's football game against Arkansas, where he administered the oath of office, or the oath of enlistment rather to 69.

Auburn Army and Air Force ROTC cadets formally beginning their military service commitments.

War Eagle to that, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency is partnering with the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office to open a new intelligence center that will be leveraging cutting edge technology to prevent crime and solve cases.

The Sheriff, Derek Cunningham, Criminal Intelligence Center, will will leverage its resources and be available to federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.

Sheriff Cunningham says the goal is to strengthe partnerships and expand invest native capabilities.

This state of the art intelligence center bring together cutting edge technology and specialized investigative resources to strengthen public safety and support multi-jurisdictional law enforcement operations.

While this historic building is over a century old, the advanced technolog and the professionals who staff it are the future of law enforcement investigations and are the tip of the spear for combating violent crime.

I've always been a proponent of integrating state assets and resources into local agencies, rather than any other direction, and the CRC really puts a pin in that notion.

And, you know, I think with the collaborative effort that we can make and we have been making here, particularly with what we're doing, our strides in the Mac unit, operating and working out of the CRC here.

It's been a great partnership.

And, you know, for us to be able to collectively put our efforts together to go after crime, not only crimes already occurring, but hopefully being proactive to stop.

In other words, I just think that collective effort is probably the best, that we can provide.

I think not only here in Montgomery County, but across the state going forward with these opportunities.

And we're just we're grateful for being part of.

I can see my vision and I can see the wheels turning.

But once others started seeing those wheels turning.

Vision was, from what you all heard already, the partnerships, the partnerships, the partnerships.

I mean, this is what we're doing here today.

I know, Chris came up and you talked, but he got to dispatchers.

There's this sits in this building.

He had investigators that sit in this building, digital forensics in this building.

Those are the personales and the partnerships that we have with the league.

And man, I can't sa thank you enough because that's what we got to have.

Voice.

Sheriff Cunningham sure knows how to wear a hat.

Okay, we'll take a quick break and be back with Veterans Affairs Commissioner Jeff Newton.

Stay with us.

This three wee battle was the defining victory for the Patriots that led to the end of British rule.

The 1781 Siege of Yorktown was the culmination of six years of arduous fighting between the Americans and the British.

Both sides were drained and looking for an end to the war, knowing that they would hav the support of the French Navy.

Washington and his troops gambled and marched to Yorktown instead of New York City.

There they took General Cornwallis forces by surprise, which begin the turning of the tide for the Americans and their French allies.

9000 members of the British Army had to confront 19,000 Continentals in this skirmish, from September 20th 8th to October 19th.

The two sides engaged i a grueling battle, from trench digging to artillery barrages to close quarter combat.

The Americans finally forced the British to surrender the morning of October 17th.

When the news reached London that Cornwallis surrendered.

The Prime Minister exclaimed, oh God, it's all over!

It's all over!

Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is Jeff Newton, commissioner of veterans affairs for the state of Alabama.

Commissioner thanks for coming on the show.

Appreciate you having me.

Thanks for supporting our veterans.

Well, look, it's Veterans Day was this week.

I know it' been a very busy week for this.

So we certainly wanted to mark that.

You saw Randy story earlier.

You wrote this op e that we ran on on Veterans Day, saying you served us.

Now let us serve you.

Exactly what did you mean by that?

Well, first, first of all, I'd like to say that, you know, Veterans Day is every day at the Alabam Department of Veterans Affairs.

So we're always looking for opportunities to take care of our veterans.

But, you know, our veterans out in the in Alabama, the 400,000 veterans, many of them just do not know what resources are available to them.

Both on the state and federal side.

And, you know we offer so many state benefits.

And I just wish that our veterans, you know, part of our job, one of the most difficult parts of our job is the awareness of what's available to our veterans.

And we have just so many things from our veterans service officers out in our county offices to our GI dependents scholarship program, to our state veterans homes, which is hugely popular in the envy of many states in the country as well as our state cemeteries.

And many of our veterans just do not know what's available to them.

So it's our job to get the word out to awareness programs.

We'll talk about the enterprise home coming back online.

I know that was because it was there was that fire, right?

Lots of damage and had to go through the repair process.

But it's finally back on again.

It's back online, you know, had the devastating fire las April of 2025 and several months later, construction, you know, kudos to the Enterprise Fire and rescue team that stopped the fire after three and a half day of dousing that home with water.

We had to get the whole home.

Well you know, it was just terrible.

But nobody was hurt.

No one was hurt.

We evacuated everyone to the Enterprise Health and Rehab Center, which was divine intervention in itself, because within an hour of getting them out of the home, they had a place, a bed to stay, and they stayed there for several months, 18 months, I believe.

And, on September 28th of this year, we brought them all back hom and had a big pep rally for him.

And, they were they were glad to get back t their Taj Mahal because it is.

And it's a beautiful, beautiful veterans home.

It absolutely is.

That's that's a good news.

You know, that was a devastating story, but it's nice to see a happy ending.

Talk about that demand because y'all have obviously there was a reaso you wanted to build a brand new veterans home there.

And enterprise adding to the other homes you have across the state.

Talk about the demand there is for those aging.

But, you know our homes are the most beautiful and the most affordable in the country.

The most our veterans pay is $24 a day.

If they're 70% service connected, the higher the cost is zero.

So you can imagine our veterans.

It's a very, very popular program.

And, we have about 500 veterans on the waiting list.

It's incredible waiting lists.

And in some cases, especially at our pal city home or Robert Hill Howard home up there, it's it's a maybe a year wait to get to get a, a room.

But and that's what families need to plan ahead on these, the applications.

Go ahead and get them in.

We'll we'll go ahead and get you in line and, do that.

But, they're very popular.

And, so we've we've initiated a feasibility study.

We've hired a contract.

We'll be hiring a contractor here soon for a feasibility study that's going to look at all of our veterans homes and see where the opportunity to expand them are, and then maybe look at possibly even a sixth veteran home in the state.

So, we're we're anxious about this feasibility study, and we look forward to getting it going and see what the results are.

Well, speaking of planning the cemeteries also.

Right.

You've got the beautiful area in Spanish Fort there.

And now the, the new one in north Alabama is under construction.

How's that going.

Yeah.

The the home and the cemetery in Spanish for it's going through some, improvements down there as well.

My sister, like you said a beautiful, beautiful cemetery.

But, this last year we were told for several years that there's no federal mone for new cemetery construction.

And that ended in December of 2025 with the help of Congressman Strong.

We got notification that we were selected for our second state Veterans Memorial Cemetery to be in Huntsville, Alabama, a little town of Maysville, just outside of Huntsville.

And, he was able to get us $19 million.

And that combined with state money, we were able to put some features on the new cemetery that you won't se at a national cemetery.

Really?

You know, they're built the same, it very much looks like Arlington.

Yeah, it's very much the same.

But ours is different.

We're going to have an amphitheater.

You won't see that at the National Cemetery.

And we're going to have some other features.

A bell tower, that's going to be placed, not only the one in Huntsville, but we're also going to place an amphitheater and a bell tower down in Spanish Fort as well.

So they'll be like Veterans Day observances there and things like that.

We'll have the amphitheater for students that want to come out and do programs for race Across America for a memorial day, for Veterans Day, just a place where the veterans can congregate and have a ceremony.

But one thing we do better than any other state in the nation is we take care of our National Guard and Reserve officers and enlisted members, many of our some of our National Guard and Reserve officers and enlisted are not eligible for burial at the National Cemetery.

But in our state cemeteries we will enter both the veteran and the spouse at no cost.

Wow.

No other state does that.

Well, a lot of those, National Guardsmen and reserve, fought in these recent wars and in Iraq and Afghanistan, a lot of that's correct.

And most of them are eligible at the national cemetery.

But we had veteran that served in the 6070s, 80s, no, prior to the war years that are not eligible for burial in a national cemetery.

We will take care of them and their spouse.

Well, on the government side, it's been a few years since the overhaul of the department, really of the board that oversees it.

Also you becoming a cabinet member, it was never a part of the cabinet.

It was kind of quasi, you know so talk about how that's gone.

What the difference is with the overhaul and you being a member of the governor's cabinet as opposed to the way it used to be, you know, going from an independent state agency to an executive level agency was huge.

And it shows that the governor is very strong with veterans, you know, makin this a cabinet level position.

She is, she she made this a very important position.

And, you know, the difference is I've seen is just the relationships that we have been able to build with both legislators and the state agencies.

And it's just you can see it.

And, we made a, an effort to do that, to get out and speak to our legislators so you can see the support we get from our legislators.

Since this change, our state Board of Veterans Affairs, it's essentiall the same as far as the make up.

All the veteran service officer organizations are represented, you know, the VFW, the American Legion, all of them, all the big, you know, the end vets, Vietnam Veterans of America, they're all represented on this board.

The only difference is they were a governing board.

Now they're an advisory board.

But I will tell you that they are probably working together better than ever.

They are engaged.

They are fully engaged in what we're doing, and they're just very active.

Yeah.

So important.

Well, look, I wanted to give you an opportunity to communicate to veterans out there if I'm a veteran.

You know, a lot of these folks were proud people.

They might not think they want help or need help, but, how might I go about contacting you?

Because you're also a conduit to the national VA.

That's correct.

Absolutely.

The best thing they can d is either go to our website VA, alabama.gov, or they can go to Vigo.

And all the benefits that are out there, both in the federal state are all out there.

And you know, they can always call our offices.

You know, we have veteran service officers out in our counties everywhere.

We're in 65 offices now.

We're about to open u a new office in Shelby County, the second office in Shelby County.

We just opened up a new office up in Colbert County.

And, you know, so they need to visit their veteran service officer in their respective county, and they can find who that is by just going to our website and clicking on the link that will guide them to their particular county.

And we'll put that up there.

Well, Commissioner thanks again for your service.

And thanks for coming on and sharing this.

Great.

Thank you sir.

Appreciate it.

We'll be right back.

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Cheaha Mountain, often called Mount Cheaha, is the highest natural point in Alabama at 2407ft above sea level.

It is located in north centra Alabama and Georgia State Park, surrounded by the Talladega National Forest in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.

This dramatic landscape gets its name from the creek Indian name for the mountain char, meaning high place.

You're watching Alabama Public Television.

And you.

Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is Kevin Aiken's partner at Impact Research.

Kevin thanks for coming on the show.

Thanks for having me, Todd.

Great to be here.

Well, I've been looking forward to this conversation.

But before we get to the election, I was hoping you could inform our audience about what you do, impact research the origins.

And, and the scope of your polling operation.

Sure.

Well, I'm proud to work at Impact Research, and we're headquartered here in Montgomery, Alabama.

I'm a Democratic pollster, researcher, and focus group moderator that really works all over the country.

Do some work in Alabama as well.

We can talk about that today.

But the origins of this i our firm was founded about 30, 35 years ago here in Montgomery by John Anzalone.

And I'm so lucky, one of the I truly mean this, I thin one of the most brilliant minds on either side of the aisle and to be, you know, consider him not just a partner, but a mentor has been wonderful.

So we are here in Montgomery.

We have offices in D.C., Chicago, Boston.

But our heart is really here in Montgomery still.

And we employ about 25 people here who work on races and campaigns all ove the country, from soup to nuts, you know, serving as those pollsters, helping give the blueprint for how to win.

Always thought it was pretty cool that like Obama pollste was based in Montgomery right.

You know some something to do that.

Well loo let's talk about this election.

And there's so much to talk about.

I mean, just a generational, election that's blue wave.

My first question is, because y'all had a ton of races out there, we were talking off air about all the races you had.

I hope you'll mention some of them.

So you're polling in Texas and in South Carolina and, you know, all these states.

When did y'all first see this wave coming?

Did you?

Was it months?

Was it last year?

When did you first see this wave coming?

Well, there was a point in 2025 that we started to.

If I look backwards, we starte to see some of the tea leaves.

And I think it was a point where Trump's unpopularity started to rise a little bit in purple states and purple districts.

So we first started to look at that.

But really over the course of this year, what we saw is, you know, some of the people's economic concerns really becoming first and foremost, I think this was a cost and corruption election.

Todd but what we saw is, we look in the polling crosstabs and you start to look at independent voters, moderate voters, and there were tea leaves as early as the spring as the war became a little bit more unpopular with the average voter.

That what we saw is there were opportunities these all over the map.

And I think as a pollster, we had to pinch ourselves a few times and say, is this real?

Do we see it in the follow up, subsequent research or not?

Is a district that is Trump plus 14 or 15 like here in Alabama?

Two.

Is that really in play or not?

And the answer was yes, it certainly was.

Well, well, I don't want to get into Alabama in a minute, but just from a national wave standpoint put this in historical context, because I, I keep hearing 94 kind of in reverse.

I keep hearing 72.

I think numbers wise, maybe that lines up, you know, 2006, which wa my first professional election, with the war component.

Put this in historical context.

How big of a deal was this?

Well, it was it was 2018 on steroids, at least for people who are more recent followers of politics.

Most of us can remember the 2018 wave where Democrats took back in Trump's first midterm.

Here in his second midterm, I really feel like it's more like oh six if I were comparing it to one general election.

Although, Todd, I'll throw a caveat out there for Southern Democrats where I do a lot of my work and sort of spend my time.

I think a lot of this was similar to 1998 as well, where you saw a lot of Southern Democrats wi statewide, win tough districts.

So it's sometimes something kind of like 98 or oh six, where I think that there were national headwinds that touched almost every state in the country.

I would argue tha even though the blue wave didn't suit Nami over Alabama, I still think it definitely touched the state in ways.

Oh, sure, we'll talk about th South, where you do your work.

I mean, we'll talk about the components.

Obviously you've got black voter turnout, in places like Alabama to places like South Carolina, Mississippi.

That had to be a huge component.

What other components was it that made the South?

I mean, just a big, I know flipping states that you would never think would would go blue.

Yeah.

And I was proud to be a part of some of those wins.

Obviously I'm a Partizan hack, dad, but, I was working on South Carolina's U.S.

Senate race and was proud to flip that state and sort of lived that race over the last three months, more than anything.

I think there were truths there that were evident in Alabama, too, which I was a part of.

And in Mississippi, where I did an outside poll as well for the U.S.

Senate race.

And I think you have to start with, I shouldn't even go farther on this show without thinking black voters as a Democratic operative.

We have to thank them for their reactions to sort of the political landscape and getting out and voting in droves.

So I'm a big thank you there.

There was a big turnout difference.

You know, one thing I saw, Todd, that I'll point out is let's talk about Georgia for a second, if we could.

Jon Ossoff blows it through the water.

We see he sort of, you know, bring over some other people with him.

They flipped the Georgia State House just next door to us.

I think one of the things is interesting, we already have individual level level voter data in Georgia.

And what we saw is the turnout was so much better for Democrats, actually, in this political environment, Kamala Harris would have won Georgia if she had the turnout from the other night, she would have won it by 2 or 3 points.

Wow.

So that that that rise in black voter turnout.

But also we have to talk a little bit about there were some Republican voter apathy, I believe.

And, you know, it's kind of when one group rises and another falls and they vote so heavily opposite of each other, you're going to have the potential for that wave election.

Going back to your earlier question, what we saw early in polling wa we saw the persuasion potential.

We saw independents more likely to vote for Democrats, more likely to trust Democrats with their pocketbook, which has been quite some time since I can say that.

But what we saw as we geared up closer to the election is not just that persuasion, but that turnout disparity.

And when you have both of those things working towards one party in favor, you can have an outsized wave election like we saw.

Well, looking at Alabama, the Alabama statewide Republicans survived this wave.

Now some of them were closer than they would have liked.

Right.

Especially top of the ticket with Tuberville and Jones.

Right.

But that blue wave impacted but did not you know overcome Alabama Republicans.

Why was that.

When you when you see a state like Mississippi and South Carolina, what I would consider pier states in terms of really Republican, you know, deep Republican, how did Alabama not get flipped the same way as Mississippi or South Carolina?

Yeah.

Well, I would say first, let me let me congratulate everybody in Alabama who won.

I think there were a lot of tough elections, people who put their names on the ballot and work in this industry for a living.

They got to be as tired as I am right now.

And so I thank them for their efforts and staff to staff to all up and down.

But what I will say is, I think that what we saw in Alabama was a lack of really investment in investment from outside groups, even some of our top donors, you know, tha traditionally support Democrats.

They're not yet all believers.

And so I wonder if that will be a change in Alabama politics.

Two years, four years from now, will you start to see people who say, mayb we should have invested in 2026?

Should we invest in 2028, in some of these places?

I'm thinking about Jones and think about the next time the governor is on the ballot, the governor elect.

I'm thinking about the fifth Congressional District, where Dale strong ran a close race against plumber Andrew Sneed and I was a part of that race.

What does that look like?

I'm thinking about the figures.

Rematch.

I'm also thinking about will Republicans have the gall to redraw lines again because they messed around and found out, in my opinion, Todd and they found out that you can really see a backlas that can change the electorate.

And would they be so brazen to do that in a presidential election?

I don't know.

Only time will tell.

You talk about, oh, there's no question that backlash, which existed not just in Alabama we felt it here in Montgomery.

There's no question about it.

So you look at Mississippi and that race really gained some steam, I guess, you know, from our perspective we didn't see it on the ground late in the cycle.

But like there was a lot of investment.

Yeah.

So do you think if there was a top of the ballot Senate race that because there really wasn' much of a race here in Alabama.

Correct.

Would that have changed things in terms of investment in the state?

National Democrats thinking they had a chance?

Well I think they could have helped.

Yes.

And I'm interested to see what that Senate matchup looks like in two years.

But I think at the end of the day, there just weren't enough outside investment.

And believers in the Jones campaign, and I think they actually ran a good campaign.

I think Democrats put good candidates on the ballot up and down the ticket.

If you look at candidate quality, I think Democrats had a good night in the Sout in the US and even in Alabama, where they came up short.

So the question is, what do we do with these candidates?

You know, how do we invest back into the party and look at the small win that happened across the state?

Look at tha protection of Shamari figures.

If you're a Democrat and say, how do we rebuild the party from here?

I think there's a big questions to be had.

And, and I certainly think that the governor's race was a missed opportunity for Democrats nationwide.

Well, you mentioned four years from now and I've had the sweater by talking about because, man, okay, there were some close calls for Republicans.

Right.

Well, obviously some legislative seats flipped, but statewide they were safe.

And I've heard people say, well, look, this was a generational election.

We're not goin to see this again for 50 years.

So four years from now, you know, that wave is not going to be there.

And Republicans will be okay.

So don't nobody freak out.

And so maybe just don't worr too much about the electorate.

Is that folly in your opinion?

I think we need to be ver careful about that mindset.

Yes.

I think that there's a chance that we do see some close elections continued in Alabama.

Now, I'm not pollyannaish enough to say that the the blue wav is coming to the state in mass.

I don't think that's necessarily the case, but we can pick off some races, and that even includes potentially the top of the ticket in a in a statewide election.

But you have to have the belief early on, a strong candidate who can both fire up the base and appeal to voters in the middle and who can fundraise enough.

So I think it's all of those pieces.

I would say it's going to be very interesting to see how the governor and the legislature govern, I think, will they govern from a right of center but pragmatic position?

I think that's just something that the state's open to.

Will they sort of be an extension of Trump's policy agenda?

I'm not so sure the state o Alabama is open to that anymore.

I guess that's what I'm getting at.

Is it looking four years from now?

Does it change how you govern?

Because if you're if you are concerned about that those voters saying like, okay, did did folks in Shelby County and Madison County, they maybe voted Democra for the first time ever, right?

Are they getting will they get used to that?

Will they do that again?

If so, if you're worried about that, it does change how you govern.

If you're not worried about it, it doesn't.

And so I guess that's the question.

And I think the governing process also is it falls on the minority party as well.

Even in these states, Democrats have to realize voters are more open to them than ever before.

But for a lot of these voters, you've got them on on lease and rental, right?

And you've only got them on rental for till the next election.

So how will Democrats prove that they can be trusted on economic issues?

Yeah, I think the agenda gets set, from the statewide dow and the national politics down.

So it'll be really interesting to see sort of how these leaders govern in that manner.

And it's important for Democrats to say I'm still there on affordability.

I still care about corruption.

These are the two issues that got me into office.

These are the things I'm focused on first and foremost, rather than impeachment or fringe issues.

Well, that's yeah.

And that' what I'm really curious about.

And, you know, Alex Angl interviewed, congressman figures and he talked about that saying, look, you know, should should we investigate problems of corruption, things like that, of course.

But, you know, let's not take our eye off the ball.

So I think he's in that mindset.

But I'm so curious how this goes because these are big majorities in Congress.

They are big majorities in the Senate, big majority in the House.

And so is there a risk?

I mean, look, Republic is swep into power again two years ago, and I think you could probably say that a lot of that was, you know, because of the economy, because of the president and all that.

And so they had two years to do something.

Voters clearly weren't buying it.

And so the Democrats ris the same problem if they don't deliver on affordable, they don't deliver on some of these things.

Do they risk, you know, voters saying, hey, we sent you there and now you didn't deliver.

We're going to, you know, send you right back home.

My job as a as a pollste now is, is kind of gearing less about winning political elections and making sure that Democrats don't drop the ball and reminding them, here's what got you into office.

Here' what voters are now looking for.

These are legislativ priorities and issue priorities that are going to drive the day.

And those priorities remain pocketbook.

So if Democrats are deaf on the issue that got them into office, they will see the pendulum swing right back against them.

And that's a warning sign.

I think Democrats in Alabama in the South and nationwide can take away.

You've got to get you'v got to address the pocketbook.

And that includes, you know making some action nationally on ending the war and cutting back some of the tariffs.

Yeah.

Interestingly you cultivate the voter then it takes stewardship.

It does in office.

Well look thanks for your time.

Congratulations on your big wins.

I mean come on.

Some of those were pretty impressive I know you're ready to get some rest.

We are.

But we're excited to be back.

We're back in the fight.

Excited to be an Alabama Democrat.

All right.

Thanks.

We'll be right back.

Luther Leonidas Hill Junior was a prominent Montgomery physician and pioneering surgeon during the late 19th and early 20th century.

In 1902, Hill became the first American physician to perform a successful surgical repair on a wounded heart.

Word of his success caused a sensation in both the popular media as well as medical journals.

His extensive study of heart wounds established him as a national authority in vascular medicine.

Welcome back to Capital Journal.

We are in the heat of football season now and the middle of high school football playoffs.

Joining me now to talk abou it is Kevin Kavinsky, columnist.

Announcer.

All around sports guru and host of our high schoo football coverage here on APT.

Kevin, thanks for taking the time.

Glad to be with you Todd.

It's a great time of year.

Well, it has been another incredible football season, and we are once again fortunate to broadcast the games here on AP.

Now we're in playoff mode.

Talk about the excitement that you're seeing out there as you get to visit thes high school football stadiums.

It's off the chart.

The love for high schoo football in the state of Alabama continues to amaze me every week.

You know, we do a game of the week during the season on Thursday nights.

And we've been to places like Demopolis and Tuscumbia, and Sarah Land and Central Phenix City and on and on.

And in the playoffs already we've been to Oxford.

We've been to Hillcrest, Tuscaloosa.

And everywhere you go, there is a love and a passion for high school football.

And it truly is a community event.

Everyone in the community comes out.

Last week we were in Oxford an and you couldn't ask for better support from a communit for a high school athletic team.

And again, we see that across the board.

We're so fortunate to be able to bring that to everyone across the state.

On APD.

Oh for sure.

And it's so cool to be able t feature the games here on APD.

I grew up in Prattville and went to Prattville High, so it's been good to see the Lions are back and poised to make a run at it this year.

But look, you know, a we get toward the championship, it's going to be a little different this yea with the two different tracks.

You got the public schools on one track, private schools on another track.

How is that playing out?

Well, it does create more pathways for more teams to win state championships.

You know, the super seven tradition was we had seven tackle football games and two flag football games.

Flag football has grown tremendously in the state.

But now this year we will have 12 state championship games when we get to mobile and we will be in mobile for the first time at Hancock Whitney Stadiu on the campus of the University of South Alabama.

And it will run from Tuesday December 1st through Saturday, December 5th.

We will have four flag football championship games on the first day, and then we will hav two traditional tackle football championship games each day, Wednesday through Saturday.

And this time, we will culminate with the large school classification on Saturday night in six a maybe.

We'll see your Prattville Lions there.

Who knows how this playoff path will work out.

But it again, it really creates more opportunities for more young men and women to create memories that will last a lifetime.

Yeah that's exciting to think about.

I'm definitely looking forward to mobile and look just the wa y'all produce these broadcast.

It's just first class.

It's really like watching a college game.

From the way you introduce it to the way the game is called just top notch.

And so I really appreciate all the work that goes into that production.

I wanted to switch gears if we could and talk about college football.

Of course, everybody's talking about the expansion of the College Football Playoff to 24 teams.

And frankly, a lot of fans are pretty grumpy about that.

In your opinion is that frustration justified?

Well, I'm one of those grumpy people, Todd.

I'm not a fan of of doublin the playoff field from 12 to 24.

We're we're in just the third year of the 12 team playoffs.

I wish they'd given it a chance to breathe and see how it worked out over a 4 to 6 year or eight year period.

Unfortunately, that's not the way this is going.

And it's just going to inevitably water down the regular season.

Yeah, there will be teams fighting for the 22nd, 23rd and 24th spots in the playoff field, but that's not the sam as fighting to get into the top 12 or under the old format in the top four.

So I just think it it waters down what makes college football special.

And it's the regular season.

It's the best regular season in sports.

One game well under the old format, one game in September could wreck your season if you lost the wrong game at th You were running up hill the rest of the year.

But now games like Alabama, LSU last week just become less important because both of those teams would be safely in a 24 team field.

And that game, it wasn' completely an elimination game, but it carried huge stakes because now Alabama is in great position and LSU is running uphill, but they're not eliminated.

They've got some big games coming up, so I don't like the format.

I don't like the size of the field.

I do like the format that they've come up with.

The top eight teams will get a bye in the first week, so it does reward you for having an excellent regular season, and the first two rounds will all be played on college campuses.

They will be home games, and that's where college football really belongs.

Is on college campuses like Auburn and Alabama and Florida and Georgia, etc.

so they did a smart jo in putting together the bracket.

I just don't think they neede to expand it the way they did.

Well, and it's the end of an er for that SEC championship game that started back in 1992, I believe with Roy Kramer, there's obviously no place for it in a 24 team format.

Really.

There isn't a place for it with just the current setup, so it's going to go by the wayside.

But what an era this has been.

I mean, I remembe how at the start of the season for four teams, it was all about getting to Atlanta, right?

Nowadays it's a playoff in the national championship.

But for a long time, the big goal was to get to Atlanta and play for that SEC championship.

So for me, it's it' kind of sad to see that era end.

It really is.

And especially in this state, because we've seen Alabama or Auburn in the game so many times, win the game so many times.

The very first game was her in Birmingham at Legion Field, in 1992, and that was as thrilling as any game in the entire history of the event.

It was tied with three minutes left, and Antonio Langham intercepts the pass, runs it back for a pick six against Florida.

And Alabam continues on the path and wins the national championship under Gene Stallings.

And again, it's just so many memories that that game is created and that was the goal.

You're absolutely right, Todd.

For guys like Steve Spurrier and Gene Stallings and Tommy Tuberville and Nick Saban, their goal when every year started was to get to Atlanta.

Because if you got to Atlanta and you won there, it was a pretty good chance you were going to move on to higher ground.

And I'm going to miss it.

Personally, I totally understand why it has to go away.

It doesn't make sense wit the 24 team format, but it will it will hold a place near and dear to the hearts of a lot of footbal fans across the South, for sure.

Well, I wanted to get your take on Alex Gola, first year head coach at Auburn.

Inherited something of a mess and has had some ups and downs this season and there's still a lot of football left.

But what's your read so far on coach goal?

In his first season at Auburn?

Well, he's made progress.

That's the first thing.

And I think Auburn fans should be pleased with that.

They've played five games, decided by one score and they've won four of them, which is huge progress considering the record of the last head coach and close games.

They managed to lose to just about everyone when they played games that were close.

That came down to one score and Alex goal is his first team, although it is definitely under talented, shall we say, to be polite.

They're finding a way to win and I don't care if it's against Arkansas and Arkansas is at the bottom of the heap in the SEC, you got to find a way to win first.

A very smart coach, a long time ago, I think his last name was di told me, when you're rebuilding a program, there are stages.

First you lose big, then you lose close, then you win close.

And if you continue on that trajectory, then you win big.

Well, Alex is, to a degree, ha gotten to the win close stage.

He's had some big losses of course, to LSU and Ole Miss.

But no I like the path they're on.

The real ke and the real test for Alex Cole.

This is going to be how does he rebuild the roster in the off season now that he's had a full yea to recruit for the first time?

How does he do in th high school recruiting rankings?

They're they're in pretty good shape there right now.

And then how does he do in the transfer portal.

They've got it.

They've got to lift up the talent level especially on the offensive line.

And given some recent commitments they've gotten it looks like they're doing exactly that.

Well you mentioned that Alabama LSU game.

And I just saw that as a huge statement game for Alabama.

And I read your column about it.

So I was hoping that you could elaborate.

What would it say this year in college football if the quiet Caleb de Boe takes his team to the playoffs?

But the loud Lane Kiffin does not.

Well first and foremost, it says Greg Bern got the right guy.

And we all remember now.

And it was a bit of a surprise at the time that Greg Bird turns his attention immediately.

When Nick Saban retired t Kaitlyn de Boer at Washington.

He was at the top of the short list immediately.

Lane Kiffin was nowhere to be seen on the short list, the medium list or the long list.

There was no wa Alabama was going to hire him.

So that game Saturday night or Saturday afternoon into Saturday night.

Much to Kiffin chagrin, wa very important to Lane Kiffin.

That was personal.

And so for Alabama to seize that game by the throat late in the third quarter and then pull away from LSU the way they did in Baton Rouge to empty Death Valley, the way they did, the way they've done many, many times through the years, did make a statement on Caitlin de Boer's behalf.

It tells you that Alabama has better football coach than LSU.

It has a better coaching staff than LSU because I would argue that LS might have a little more talent.

Now, Alabama certainly is very talented, but I don't think there's a team that has more talent top to bottom on its roster in the country than LSU.

So huge statemen by Kaitlyn de Boer by Alabama.

And now they're sitting pretty there at number three in the latest playoff poll.

They went out.

They will be in the playoff.

And they will be primed if they can stay healthy to make a run at the national championship.

It is the most wonderful time of the year.

Kevin, thanks so much for your time and I guess we will see you in mobile.

You definitely will.

Can't wait.

We are on the road to mobile now, and we're going to see some great football between here and there and certainly when we get there.

Can't wait.

Thanks again.

Thanks, Todd.

We'll be right back.

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That's our show for this week.

Thanks for watching.

We'll be back next week at the same time right here on Alabama Public Television for our Capital Journal team.

I'm Todd Stacy.

We'll see you next time.