Scott Stadthagen (Courtesy of Scott Stadthagen for State Representative District 9 on Facebook)
MONTGOMERY – After Democrat Terrie Jones Savage withdrew from her race against Republican Scott Stadthagen for the Alabama House of Representatives District 9 seat two weeks ago, the Alabama Democratic Party failed to come up with a replacement at the State Democratic Party Executive Committee meeting on Aug. 11. According to Press Secretary John Bennett at the office of the Alabama Secretary of State, the party still had until 5 p.m. on Aug. 22 to name a replacement. On Wednesday, though, the deadline came and went with no word from the Democrats, leaving Stadthagen the sole candidate in the race and almost certainly the winner by default. Deadlines for independent or third-party candidates have long passed. Stadthagen will be the only candidate on the ballot for the District 9 seat.
A spokesperson for the Alabama Democratic Party confirmed to The Tribune on Thursday: "No one qualified for HD 9; therefore, the Democratic nominee position is vacant for the Nov. 6 election."
In a phone conversation with The Tribune after Savage withdrew, Stadthagen said “There’s not (another candidate at this point), but part of our campaign is listening to the people of our district; I’m not going to stop doing that. We actually met last night, and we said if we end up not having an opponent, we’re still going to be out in our district, and we’re still going to be talking to people and listening to people, and that’s kind of what we’ve done from 20 months ago, and we’re going to continue to do that.
“I’m excited about the next page for our state, with the leadership we have: with the Speaker Mac McCutcheon and our House Majority Leader Nathaniel Ledbetter. And I really think it’s going to be a new page for the state of Alabama. And our Cullman County delegation, we’re going to do very good things as a team.”
The race for the House District 9 seat was wide open going into the June 5 primary since incumbent Rep. Ed Henry, R-Hartselle announced he was not seeking re-election. Stadthagen beat primary opponents Justin Morrow (20.92 percent) and James Bowling (16.66 percent) handily, with 62.42 percent of the vote.
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