United States House of Representatives elections in Alabama, 2012

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	Primary Date ; March 13, 2012
	Partisan breakdown • Candidates
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	2012 U.S. Senate Elections

The 2012 U.S. House of Representatives elections in Alabama took place on November 6, 2012. Voters elected seven candidates to serve in the U.S. House, one from each of the state's seven congressional districts.

Candidate Filing Deadline	Primary Election	General Election
January 12, 2012	March 13, 2012	November 6, 2012

Primary: Alabama has an open primary system, in which registered voters do not have to be members of a party to vote in that party's primary.

Voter registration: Voters had to register to vote in the primary by March 3. For the general election, the voter registration deadline was October 28.^[1]

See also: Alabama elections, 2012

If no candidate receives 50 percent of the vote, then a primary runoff is required by state law. A runoff was not required in 2012.

The Center for Voting and Democracy (Fairvote) projected that Democrats would win one district while Republicans would win six seats.^[2]

Primary competitiveness

See also: National contested primary average during the 2012 U.S. congressional elections

Alabama was tied with Georgia for having the 34th most competitive congressional primaries in 2012, with 42.86% of major party primaries having been contested (6 out of 14). The national average was 54.31%.

Seven U.S. House incumbents ran for re-election in Alabama in 2012. Three of those seven (42.86%) faced a primary challenger. Nationwide, 200 out of the 386 incumbents seeking re-election faced a primary challenger (51.81%).

Partisan breakdown

Heading into the November 6 election, the Republican Party held six of the seven Congressional seats from Alabama.

Members of the U.S. House from Alabama -- Partisan Breakdown
Party		As of November 2012	After the 2012 Election
	Democratic Party	1	1
	Republican Party	6	6
Total		7	7

FairVote's Monopoly Politics 2012

See also: FairVote's Monopoly Politics 2012

In 2012, FairVote did a study on partisanship in the congressional districts, giving each a percentage ranking (D/R) based on the new 2012 maps and comparing that to the old 2010 maps.^[3]

According to the study, Alabama was 36% Democratic and 64% Republican.

Incumbents

Heading into the 2012 election, the incumbents for the seven congressional districts were:

Name	Party	District
Jo Bonner	Republican	1
Martha Roby	Republican	2
Mike Rogers	Republican	3
Mo Brooks	Republican	5
Robert Aderholt	Republican	4
Spencer Bachus	Republican	6
Terri Sewell	Democratic	7

Margin of victory for winners

There were a total of 7 seats up for election in 2012 in Alabama. The following table shows the margin of victory for each district winner, which is calculated by examining the percentage difference between the top-two vote getters. If the race was uncontested, the margin of victory is listed as 100%.

District	Winner	Margin of Victory	Total Vote	Top Opponent
Alabama, District 1	Jo Bonner	95.7%	200,676	N/A
Alabama, District 2	Martha Roby	27.3%	283,953	Therese Ford
Alabama, District 3	Mike Rogers	28.2%	273,930	John Andrew Harris
Alabama, District 4	Robert Aderholt	48.1%	269,118	Daniel H. Boman
Alabama, District 5	Mo Brooks	30%	291,293	Charlie L. Holley
Alabama, District 6	Spencer Bachus	42.5%	308,102	Penny H. Bailey
Alabama, District 7	Terri Sewell	51.8%	306,558	Don Chamberlain

General election candidates

District	General Election Candidates	Incumbent	2012 Winner	Partisan Switch?
1st	Jo Bonner	Jo Bonner	Jo Bonner	No
2nd	Therese Ford Martha Roby	Martha Roby	Martha Roby	No
3rd	John Andrew Harris Mike Rogers	Mike Rogers (Alabama)	Mike Rogers	No
4th	Daniel H. Boman Robert Aderholt	Robert Aderholt	Robert Aderholt	No
5th	Charlie L. Holley Mo Brooks	Mo Brooks	Mo Brooks	No
6th	Penny H. Bailey Spencer Bachus	Spencer Bachus	Spencer Bachus	No
7th	Terri Sewell Don Chamberlain	Terri Sewell	Terri Sewell	No

FairVote Democracy Study

See also: FairVote's "Dubious Democracy" report about United States House of Representatives elections

FairVote, formerly the Center for Voting and Democracy, published a study of representative democracy in U.S. House elections. The analysis, "Dubious Democracy," compiles voting data to assess "the level of competition and the accuracy of representation in House elections in all 50 states."^[4] The study attempts to highlight a lack of real options in most elections, as well as a mismatch between voter preferences and the politicians who represent them.^[4]

Among the statistics analyzed in the study are the following:

The Democracy Index is the overall combination of Average Margin of Victory, Landslide Index, Seats-to-Votes Distortion, and Representation Index.
The Margin of Victory is the winner's percentage of the vote minus the second-place candidate's.
Voter Turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who voted in a given election.
The Representation Index multiplies voter turnout by the winning candidate's percentage.

Alabama's ratings for 2010 are shown below: