Alabama Democrats picked their next party chair the way they’ve picked every one before him: by holding up pieces of paper. Inside a Montgomery ballroom Saturday, more than 200 members of the State Democratic Executive Committee raised cards printed with the word “vote” while other members walked the floor to count them. When the count finished, Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton held 165. Incumbent Chair Randy Kelley held 62.
That’s 72.7 percent. In a party built on incremental politics, it’s a landslide.
Who Got the Gavel
Singleton has represented Greensboro in the Alabama Legislature since 2002 — first in the House, then, from 2005 on, in the Senate. He’s led the chamber’s eight-member Democratic caucus since 2018, and he isn’t giving that job up now that he has a second one.
“I want you to know that I hear you, I see you,” Singleton told the room before the vote. “I’m gonna hold listening tours across all 67 counties… Women, I see you, and I hear you. I want the LGBTQ to know that I hear you and I see you. We can no longer sit back and do things in an archaic way.”
What Kelley Leaves Behind
Kelley’s exit follows a stretch of public infighting rare for a state party. In 2023, the SDEC passed bylaws eliminating the party’s youth, LGBTQ+, and disabled caucuses and stripping most oversight power from its affirmative action, Asian and Pacific Islander, Hispanic, and Native American caucuses. The Democratic National Committee ordered most of them restored the following year. More recently, former candidates raised complaints about a lack of election education and, separately, accusations of illegal campaign finance practices.
House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels nominated Singleton and framed the choice in fundraising terms — the party needed a chair who could raise money, he said, and needed the room to leave united no matter who won.
“This is no indictment on anyone, anywhere, because as we leave here today we have to be united no matter what and put our differences to the side as we move forward,” Daniels said.
Kelley’s own remarks reached for history instead of grievance. He cited the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, and the Montgomery bus boycott as proof organizing works, and pointed to two recent wins — Marilyn Lands flipping a Huntsville-area House seat in 2024 and Shomari Figures winning Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District that same year — as evidence his four years weren’t wasted. When the votes were counted, Singleton crossed the room and hugged him.
The Vote, By the Numbers
A Vote From Home
Hazel Floyd holds the SDEC’s District 38 female seat — the same Hazel Floyd running for Alabama House District 38, the seat this publication profiled after she re-qualified following a 67-point special election loss in February. District 38 spans both Chambers and Lee counties; the rest of Chambers County falls in District 37, represented separately. Reached Saturday evening, after the votes were counted, Floyd told The Frequency she’d voted for both Singleton and Self.
It’s one name against a 200-plus-member count. But it says something about who’s holding down one of Chambers County’s seats at the state table: the same candidate who spent the spring proving she’d show up for a race almost no one gave her a chance in spent Saturday voting for the same kind of change inside her own party.
The Other Race on the Ballot
Singleton wasn’t the only new name on the dais. He nominated Caroline Self, an SDEC member from House District 2 in Florence, for the seat beside him. She won, 139 votes (66.5%), over Tori Bailey, an SDEC member from House District 3.
“I want to work to win,” Self said. “We have opportunities this year that we have not seen since I was a child. I get out every day and I work countless hours because we can win in November.”
What’s Next
He says the plan is “robust” and that 87 days isn’t much time to execute it. He won’t step down as Senate Minority Leader to do it — he intends to run the caucus and the party at once.
Democrats enter November with their largest slate of candidates since 2018 and turnout gains in Democratic-leaning counties this primary season. They’re still underdogs statewide, with only a handful of competitive legislative seats in play. But Singleton’s promise — to show up in all 67 counties, including the ones east of Montgomery that rarely see a state party chair at all — is the kind of retail politics East Alabama Democrats have been asking for since long before Saturday’s vote.
Whether that promise reaches Chambers County is a 2026 question. The clock on it started this weekend.