A rare incumbent versus incumbent congressional race will provide an even rarer incumbent versus incumbent primary debate next month.

Republican U.S. Rep. Jerry Carl of Mobile will square off against Republican U.S. Rep. Barry Moore of Enterprise in a battle of the incumbents at 6 p.m. Jan. 24 at the Daphne Civic Center.

“We are excited to hear from both congressmen about the issues that concern us at all in the newly drawn Congressional District 1,” said Baldwin County Chairman Patrick McWilliams, who confirmed Wednesday that both candidates confirmed that they will participate. “The Baldwin County Republican Party felt best they both speak on the issues that concern us all. We have almost 30 percent of the Congressional District 1 population in Baldwin County, so that’s a good chunk.”

The debate will last 60-90 minutes. It will include questions from three moderators. McWilliams said he’s still working out the details on a media partner.

The moderators will be Jeff Poor with 1819 News, Sean Sullivan with FM Talk 106.5, and WKRG-TV anchor Peter Albrecht.

“This is about making informed voters,” McWilliams said. “That’s what as the chairman of Republican Party of Baldwin County, I want to inform voters as much as we possibly can and move forward with all the information available.”

Moore and Carl are running for a seat that is in their home districts. Enterprise, which was in Alabama’s 2nd congressional district which Moore has represented since 2021, was added into the 1st district following a court-ordered redistricting of Alabama’s congressional map. Carl has served as the 1st congressional district representative since 2021.

Carl, in a statement, said the following:

“Alabama’s First Congressional District needs a conservative workhorse fighting for them in Congress, and that’s exactly what I’ve done since being elected. I look forward to debating my challenger as I highlight my record as a conservative fighter who has stood up for Trump’s America First agenda and gone toe-to-toe with Joe Biden to hold him accountable for being a total failure.

Whether it’s working to stop Biden’s radical attempts to defund law enforcement, working to pass the strongest border security bill the House has ever voted on, or pushing back against liberals who want to fundamentally change our way of life, I’ll never back down from the fight. The voters deserve a workhorse, not a show horse, and I look forward to highlighting that during the debate.”

Moore’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

The political dynamics of the congressional district was greatly altered by a special master appointed by federal judges who redrew the map after the the Alabama Legislature’s proposed map was found to be a violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The new map redrew Moore’s 2nd district to give Black voters an opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice in a decision that had the backing of a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court. The 2nd district seat is now open, and a whopping 21 candidates (13 Democrats, eight Republicans) are vying for a seat that Cook Political Report has rated as a +4 advantage for Democrats.

The new 1st district is considerably more conservative than it was under the Legislature’s map challenged by the courts. According to Cook Political Report’s revised Partisan Voter Index (PVI), the 1st district is now a +28 advantage for Republicans, tied for the sixth most GOP-leaning congressional district in the country. The figure is a remarkable shift from just a few years ago, when it was a +15 advantage for Republicans when former U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne represented the seat.

For the first time ever, Baldwin County is the predominate population base among counties in an Alabama congressional district. The district now stretches from Mobile County through South Alabama and into the Wiregrass.