A bruising battle for the GOP nomination in the highly conservative 1st congressional district is dominating TV and radio airwaves in recent days with allegations about tax cheating and anti-Trump support.

The dizzying array of ads comes less than two weeks before voters go to the polls during the March 5 Republican primary to determine which incumbent in the 1st district they want to support as their new congressman.

The battle of the incumbents – U.S. Rep. Barry Moore of Enterprise and U.S. Rep. Jerry Carl of Mobile — is a rarity in Alabama and is only the first time since 1960 that two sitting members of the state’s U.S. House delegation are squaring off in a primary election.

The battle is the result of a court-ordered redistricting that led to a redrawing of the 2nd district to give Black voters a second chance at selecting a candidate of their choice. (The 7th Congressional District is majority Black). The byproduct of that is a 1st district that, according to Cook Political Report, ranks among the 10th most conservative districts in the U.S. House.

Here is the drama that is unfolding in recent days:

Tax liens

Moore, according to the Carl camp, is a “repeated tax cheat.” Carl’s campaign points to seven tax liens on various properties under Moore’s name.

Moore’s camp has fought back on the biggest of the liens issued to Moore and his wife in the amount of $45,000 in 2016. The Moore campaign claimed that lien was a mistake by the IRS and was resolved when Moore hand-delivered an amended tax return.

A Moore spokeswoman said, “The tax lien was due to a mistake made by the IRS which was cleared up as soon as it was brought to their attention. The lien was lifted because it was never owed in the first place.”

The Carl camp is also questioning other liens on Moore’s properties in the past, which the Moore campaign chalks up to errors that have been corrected. They total to more than $75,000.

The other liens were filed in 2008, 2004, and 2002.

“Barry Moore is trying to distract from his record of being a documented, repeated tax cheat,” a Carl campaign spokesperson said. “Moore failed to pay over $75,000 in taxes while wanting to raise taxes by 30% on Alabama families.”

The Moore campaign countered with the following statement, “Just like the Uniparty is going after President Trump on his taxes, dragging up settled issues that are decades old, Jerry Carl and his DC Swamp cronies are throwing everything they can at Barry to try to drag him down.”

Moore supporters say that it is Carl who is lying about his own record on taxes. They point to an allegation in 2008, in which Carl’s Black Belt Medical was issued a federal tax lien from the IRS for $612.45.

Carl, during a forum hosted by the Republican Women of Coffee County, reportedly said he denied he ever had a tax lien.

“Barry pays his taxes, Jerry knows it, and he is lying about his own record of tax liens,” the Moore campaign stated, claiming that Carl is making an issue about the taxes because “he’s desperate to do anything he can to cling to power, including lie about Barry Moore.”

The issue about Carl’s lien has come up before, in 2016, when Carl ran successfully against State Rep. Margie Wilcox in a Mobile County Commission race.

Jon Gray, who ran Wilcox’s campaign and is now a spokesman with Dare to Defend Our Rights political action committee supporting Moore’s candidacy, said Carl is “beyond lying.”

“This is ludicrous that he’d make these kinds of allegations against Barry Moore knowing the exact allegations are true about himself,” Gray said.

Club for Growth

Club for Growth, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit known for its over-the-top and sensational campaign ads, has returned to an Alabama race with an affiliate PAC named School Freedom Fund. The organization has made a hefty media purchase aimed at going after Carl’s school choice record, the organization says.

“Jerry Carl has a long voter record of opposing school freedom and putting the judgement of radical education bureaucrats ahead of parents,” said David McIntosh, president of School Freedom Fund, and a former Indiana congressman who also heads up the Club for Growth that opposed Carl during his 2020 campaign against former Alabama State Sen. Bill Hightower.

Of the amount spent in Alabama, approximately $1.2 million was spent to defeat Carl in the 1st district. – Carl defeated Hightower by a 52.3% to 47.7% margin.

“Meanwhile, Barry Moore has consistently supported school freedom and parent rights, and he is the only true America First candidate who will take on the radical left with President Trump,” McIntosh said.

Also in 2020, Club for Growth backed Moore in his race against Jeff Coleman.

The Club for Growth is raising issues with what they say is Carl’s record of voting against Republican amendments related to school choice matters in March 2023.

The Carl camp accuses Moore of receiving help from “the original Never Trumper group.” The Club was one of the groups that, in 2016, pushed to prevent Trump’s nomination.

But it appears Trump and the Club are on better terms. According to a Politico piece earlier this month, McIntosh and Trump met for dinner recently at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla.

According to Politico, a Club-affiliated group had recently an unsuccessful “multi-million-dollar TV ad campaign” aimed at derailing Trump in the early primary states.

Carl’s campaign says that Moore should denounce “their lying ads” and “stop opposing the Trump agenda.”

Support networks

Moore has pointed to his high ratings among Alabama Congressmen from both CPAC and Heritage Action, powerful Washington, D.C. conservative groups.

Moore’s campaign is pointing to the support they are also getting from the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, including a round of endorsements from conservative lawmakers including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

Cruz, in a statement, said Moore is “unafraid of taking the tough votes” needed in Congress. Moore also recently welcomed a campaign visit from Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, the chairman of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee.

The Coastal 150 PAC – consisting of Mobile and Baldwin County business leaders – have recently come out with their support for Carl, saying that Moore doesn’t know much about the two most populous counties in the 1st district – Mobile and Baldwin counties. The rest of the district includes counties that extend southeast into the state’s Wiregrass area. Carl has secured the endorsements from most of the mayors and state lawmakers from Mobile and Baldwin counties.

Though the 1st district has always been a reliably Republican district, it ranked sixth among the state’s six Republican-leaning districts at the time and was the 75th most Republican district in the country. The sudden shift further rightward has enabled the district to leapfrog all the GOP strongholds in Texas, Georgia, and beyond.

Democrat Tom Holmes, a retired state worker, will compete against the winner of the Moore/Carl race during the November general election in a district that now has a whopping +28 advantage for Republicans, according to the Cook Political Report.