Republican Matt Woods Overwhelmingly Wins West Alabama State Senate Seat

A Walker County Republican overwhelmingly won a Tuesday special election to represent part of West Alabama in the state Senate, earning more than 85 percent of the vote.

Matt Woods will now represent Alabama's Senate District 5, made up of parts of Fayette, Jefferson, Lamar, Tuscaloosa, and Walker Counties.

The Senate seat became vacant late last year when Governor Kay Ivey appointed former Senator Greg Reed as her Senior Advisor to Workforce Transformation and called a special election to replace him.

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In a Tuesday special election, preliminary results from the Alabama Secretary of State said Woods defeated Democrat Ryan Cagle with 7,707 of the 8,962 votes cast, or 86 percent of the ballot box.

The split was relatively even across all five counties - here in Tuscaloosa County, Woods earned about 88 percent of the vote. 

Another set of special elections has been called after a similar circumstance in the Alabama House of Representatives - Ivey has appointed legislator Cynthia Almond to lead the Public Service Commission, which will vacate her seat in House District 63.

That race will be decided in a general election set for next January.

For more exclusive coverage of politics in West Alabama, stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread.