U.S. Rep. Jerry Carl, on his hometown turf Monday, reminded Mobile County’s GOP of their personal connections with him. His opponent, U.S. Rep. Barry Moore, reminded the voters of his staunch conservative bona fides.

The two incumbents, battling it out for Republican nomination to the newly-drawn 1st congressional district seat in South Alabama, made their pitch to the Mobile Republican Party during a candidates forum inside a hotel conference room.

Carl, R-Mobile, leaned heavily on his roots within the county while pushing coastal Alabama issues – more drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, support for Austal USA shipbuilding, and continued advocacy for Airbus to land a military tanker contract – to draw a difference with his opponent who is from a city that is a nearly three-hour drive away.

“I look at the faces in this room, it’s the people I grew up with,” Carl said. “It’s family.”

Moore is the current 2nd congressional district lawmaker whose home in Enterprise was redrawn into the 1st district. He has said that his reason for running in the new district is because his home is within its boundaries. The 1st district is also among the most Republican-leaning in the U.S.

Moore said he is the only member of the Alabama delegation who is also member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, and announced that Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, who was the Freedom Caucus’ first chair in 2015, will campaign for him during an “America First” rally on Jan. 27, in Robertsdale.

“The one thing we’ve proven is you can be conservative and effective,” Moore said. “We need more people like him and more like the Freedom Caucus to save this nation.”

The two candidates were allowed to speak for five minutes each, and neither took direct shots at the other. They are scheduled to debate Jan. 24, in Daphne.

Their political confrontation is the result of court-authorized redistricting and represents only the first time in 61 years that two incumbents are squaring off against one another in an Alabama congressional contest.

“It’s unfortunate the situation we are in and the tough choices we got to make,” Moore said.

The two have butted heads over last month’s vote on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Moore was one of 118 House members to vote against the $886 billion defense spending package, and the only one to do so from Alabama.

Moore expressed his concerns for rising federal debt and has said he is worried over continued spending to support Ukraine. He said the rising debt is a reason why he has voted against supplemental appropriation plans.

“It’s great to say, ‘I want to bring home the bacon,’ but we cannot save the nation and bring home the bacon,” said Moore.

Carl, a former Mobile County Commissioner, told Mobile County’s GOP that he knows what the needs of Mobile are, and said he’s been an “elected official in Mobile for the past 13 years, and I don’t apologize for that.”

Carl recently visited Fort Novosel in Alabama’s Wiregrass area – now mostly in the 1st district – and recognized he supportive of the NDAA, which included over $60 million to improve the facility’s safety and living conditions.

Neither Carl nor Moore referenced negative campaigning which is likely to emerge in the final weeks before March 5. A new campaign ad released by the South Alabama Conservatives political action committee represented the first attack ad of the primary season, and blasted Moore’s record. The ad encourages viewers to scan a QR code to find out more, and leads the viewer a website that accuses Moore’s businesses receiving tax money, among other critiques.

Moore points to his high conservative marks. He scores higher than Carl when comparing the two’s scorecards by conservative groups like Heritage Action and CPAC.

The 1st district has long been a reliable Republican district, and has elected Republicans to Congress since the 1960s. But the newly drawn district is even more Republican-leaning after redistricting, and is a whopping +28 advantage or Republicans. That is good enough to be tied for the sixth most GOP -leaning congressional district in the country.

Carl reminded the Mobile County Republicans that he is also a strong conservative and rates the U.S.-Mexico southern border as the No. 1 issue facing lawmakers in Washington, D.C.

“I’m a conservative Republican and I don’t back down from that or apologize for that,” Carl said.

Mobile and Baldwin counties have the district’s largest population bases ‚but much of the city is now in the 2nd district. Baldwin County, traditionally a Republican-leaning coastal county, remains the dominate population base. The two counties are joined with seven rural and heavily conservative counties to its east extending into the Wiregrass. Dothan, in Houston County, is the district’s largest city with a population slightly more than 71,000.

Mobile County GOP chairwoman Tricia Strange said she’s concerned that a good number of voters in Mobile County are likely unfamiliar who they will be voting for on March 5.

“I think there will be a lot of shock,” she said. “I don’t think it’s bene published enough (about the dividing lines between) congressional districts 1 and 2.”

Republican Mobile County Sheriff Paul Burch, who like most Republican officials in Mobile and Baldwin counties endorsed Carl, said he remains upset over how the congressional districts were altered. A federal court tossed out the congressional map approved by the supermajority Republican Alabama Legislature in 2021. The majority of the U.S. Supreme Court backed the decision, requiring Moore’s 2nd district to be redrawn to give Black voters to elect a candidate of their choice.

“It’s alarming,” Burch said about how the district had been changed. “But I’ll do whatever I can for (Carl) to be re-elected. He’s been in D.C. fighting for us regardless of where the lines are drawn.”