Alabama's 2nd congressional district

Infobox U.S. congressional district
state = Alabama
district number = 2


image width = 300
image caption = District map as of 2002
representative = Terry Everett
party = Republican
english area = 10,608
metric area = 27,275
percent urban = 50.1
percent rural = 49.9
population = 635,300
population year = 2000
median income = 32,460
percent white = 67.0
percent black = 29.4
percent asian = 0.6
percent native american = 0.4
percent hispanic = 1.5
percent other race = 1.0
percent blue collar = 29.5
percent white collar = 55.1
percent gray collar = 15.4
cpvi = R + 13

Alabama's Second Congressional District is a U.S. congressional district in Alabama, which elects a representative to the United States House of Representatives. It encompasses the counties of Autauga, Barbour, Bullock, Butler, Coffee, Conecuh, Covington, Crenshaw, Dale, Elmore, Geneva, Henry, Houston, Lowndes, Montgomery (partial), and Pike

It is currently represented by Republican Terry Everett.

Character

The second district covers the south-east corner of Alabama. For most of its history, it has been based in Montgomery. However, in the 2000 round of redistricting, it lost the capitol area and most of the outlying districts to the 3rd District. The 2nd was one of five districts to swing Republican in 1964, when Barry Goldwater swept the state, and Republicans have not let go since then. It has become progressively more Republican in the last two redistricting rounds. The 1990 round shifted most of Montgomery's blacks to the majority-black 7th District, while the areas removed in 2000 were mostly Democratic. Elmore, Autauga, Dothan and Houston counties are heavily Republican; made up mostly of whites who tend to take a hard line on defense and "law and order." The blackbelt counties - Lowndes, Bullock and Barbour-- tend to be more Democratic, however this area's votes are easily outweighed by the more populated counties of the Wiregrass region. George W. Bush won 67% of the vote in this district in 2004. The district has a Cook Partisan Voting Index score of R +13.

Defense and agriculture are the mainstays of the 2nd district's economy (the district includes Fort Rucker). The soil was first tilled for cotton, but in the early part of this century the boll weevil wiped out more than two-thirds of the cotton crop. Now the area grows more peanuts than almost any other part of the country. Enterprise in Coffee County erected a monument to the boll weevil as a tribute to the insect whose destruction of the cotton crop persuaded farmers to switch their efforts to growing peanuts. Dothan hosts the National Peanut Festival and Parade each October, offers the Azalea Dogwood Trail in the spring, and is home to a Robert Trent Jones golf course. Ozark has the Claybank Jamboree each fall.

In addition to Montgomery, the major cities of the district are Dothan, Enterprise, Ozark, Troy and Greenville.

Representation

External links

* [http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2006/pages/results/states/AL/H/02/ CNN coverage of the 2006 election]
* [http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/AL/ CNN converage of the 2004 election]
* [http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2002/pages/states/AL/index.html CNN converage of the 2002 election]
* [http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2000/results/AL/frameset.exclude.html CNN converage of the 2000 election]