The Frequency

The June 16 primary runoff is four days away. For Republican voters in Chambers County, two races are on the ballot. Both carry consequences beyond June.

U.S. Senate — Barry Moore vs. Jared Hudson

Rep. Barry Moore of Enterprise and former Navy SEAL Jared Hudson are running to fill the Senate seat being vacated by Tommy Tuberville, who left to run for governor. Moore won the May 19 primary with nearly 40% of the vote and holds President Trump’s endorsement. Hudson finished 14 points behind but has closed the gap sharply: a late-May survey of 600 likely runoff voters put Hudson at 48.7% to Moore’s 39.2% — the first time he had led in any public poll of the race.

Moore’s campaign emphasizes congressional experience and loyalty to the Trump agenda. Hudson’s argument is that Washington is broken and that sending another congressman isn’t the remedy. Both are competing in a solidly red state; the Republican nominee is the heavy favorite in November.

PSC Place 2 — Chris Beeker vs. Jim Ziegler

Also on the June 16 ballot: the Republican primary runoff for Alabama Public Service Commission Place 2. Incumbent Commissioner Chris Beeker faces former State Auditor Jim Ziegler. Beeker was appointed to the commission in 2024 following his father’s resignation. Ziegler has centered his campaign on Alabama’s high electricity rates and a promise to investigate Alabama Power’s pricing if elected.

The winner faces Democratic nominee Sheila McNeil in November — the same McNeil whose federal lawsuit challenging the PSC’s expansion is currently before the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama.

Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m.

Sheila McNeil filed her federal lawsuit on May 27. Forty-nine days later, the governor is scheduled to start filling four new seats on the Alabama Public Service Commission.

July 15 is the pressure point. HB 475, signed into law on April 3, restructures the PSC from three statewide elected commissioners to seven district-based seats. Four of those seven will be appointed by Governor Kay Ivey. Legislative leaders were required to submit shortlists of nominees by June 1. That deadline has passed. The appointments have not been announced.

McNeil’s lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, argues that HB 475 violated the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause by changing election rules after absentee voting had begun. The suit also contends the restructuring dilutes minority voting power under the Voting Rights Act — reducing the statewide Black vote, which could previously influence all three PSC races, to potential influence over one or two district-level seats.

The suit seeks an injunction that would freeze the appointment process. As of this writing, no hearing date has been publicly announced.

If the court does not act before July 15, the governor proceeds with appointments and the new seven-member commission becomes operational. Under HB 475, that commission would work alongside a governor-appointed Secretary of Energy with authority over the PSC’s agenda, staffing, and the scope of any rate review.

The restructuring was sold as utility reform. Whether it survives a federal challenge is being decided now. July 15 is the practical answer.

School is out for summer. The new law arrived anyway.

Senate Bill 168, sponsored by Sen. Donnie Chesteen and Rep. Leigh Hulsey, took effect June 1, 2026. It does two things: it requires Alabama public schools to ground reading instruction in the Science of Reading, and it prohibits the use of three-cueing — a method that teaches children to guess unfamiliar words using pictures, context, and surrounding sentence meaning rather than decoding them phonetically.

Three-cueing has been in Alabama classrooms for decades. The approach gained traction in the 1990s as part of the broader “balanced literacy” movement and persisted in many schools even after the Science of Reading accumulated substantial research support. SB 168 doesn’t simply discourage three-cueing. Under the new law, districts that continue using it are required to notify the state legislature and the public.

The Alabama Reading Initiative has supported schools in transitioning to Science of Reading-aligned instruction since the original Alabama Literacy Act passed in 2019. But the 2019 law focused on goals and coaching. SB 168 closes the door on the alternative.

For Chambers County, the stakes are direct. Nearly half of the county’s students are economically disadvantaged. Reading researchers have found, consistently, that children who cannot read proficiently by the end of third grade are significantly more likely to leave school before graduating — some studies put the figure at four times the rate of proficient readers. In communities where early literacy shapes whether a child reaches a sustainable career or a structural ceiling in their thirties, a change in how phonics gets taught in kindergarten is not a technical pedagogy debate. It is a long-term economic intervention.

Summer gives schools time to prepare. Fall is when the mandate is tested.

The bill that became HB 475 did not start as a restructuring bill.

Rep. Mack Butler of Rainbow City introduced it as a utility reform measure — one that would have required the Alabama Public Service Commission to hold formal rate-case hearings every three years, compelled Alabama Power to justify rate increases on the record, and placed hard limits on the utility’s profit margins.

It did not end that way.

By the time HB 475 cleared the Alabama Senate and reached Governor Ivey’s desk in early April, the mandatory rate hearings were gone. The profit limits were gone. What remained was a base rate freeze through January 1, 2029, an expansion of the PSC from three to seven seats, and a governor-appointed Secretary of Energy with authority over the commission’s agenda, staffing, and the scope of any rate review.

Butler objected. The bill passed over his objections.

Alabama Power customers pay among the highest electricity rates in the South, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data. The base rate freeze offers stability through January 1, 2029. But because it applies to base rates specifically, fuel adjustment charges and other add-ons remain adjustable.

Daniel Tait, executive director of Energy Alabama, put it directly: “What passed today eliminates mandatory rate hearings. It removes profit limits. It creates a Governor-appointed Secretary of Energy who controls the Public Service Commission’s agenda, its staff, and the scope of any rate review — effectively handing a political appointee a veto over your electric bill.”

The original bill would have opened the books. The final version reorganized who sits in the room.

Chambers County has been in a few rooms lately.

In December 2025, Korean economic development advisors toured industrial sites in Chambers County as part of Alabama’s effort to establish a foreign business development office in Seoul. The county’s existing relationship with Korean-owned automotive suppliers made it a natural stop. The visit was exploratory — a chance to connect available sites with investors already tracking the state.

The timing is not accidental. Alabama recorded $14.6 billion in capital investment in 2025, its highest annual total in state history. Much of that growth came from automotive and industrial sectors where Chambers County — with its base in automotive, forest products, food and beverage, warehousing, and logistics — is an active competitor.

This summer adds a new tool to that competition. The Alabama Development Fund, signed in 2025 and now effective, begins releasing funds in July that are expected to quadruple the state’s available site development incentives. The fund is designed to close contested industrial deals — the ones where a certified, infrastructure-ready site is the difference between landing the investment and watching it go to Georgia.

Chambers County is not starting from scratch. Active projects include a 22-acre mill site revitalization in Valley and the Double Drive sewer expansion, expanding capacity ahead of anticipated residential and commercial growth. The residential pipeline alone — more than 600 homes across 10-plus active subdivisions as of early 2026 — reflects a community expecting more people, not fewer.

The advisors came in December to see what’s here. What changes this summer is how much state money is available to back the pitch when they return.