Jackson HannanAlabama legislative forecast
The Alabama Legislature

2026 Election Forecast

A district-by-district forecast anchored to 2024 presidential performance and adjusted for the projected 2026 national environment using Alabama’s demographic composition.
Forecast built Polling through Finance through
How the two forecast views work
  1. Both views begin with the district's 2024 presidential margin adjusted for the projected 2026 national environment.
  2. Basic adds 20% of the expected-performance adjustment used by the CMO framework.
  3. Fundamentals+ applies the full CMO expected-performance adjustment.
  4. A recent Southern legislative calibration converts each expected margin into a conditional win probability.
Backtested comparisons

Forecast model

MAE is the average absolute district-margin error; lower is better. Only two holdouts occur after 2016.

Median Democratic seats
Democratic 80% seat range

Choose a district on the map or with the district finder.

Pan and zoom to explore roads, cities, and district geography.

District forecast table

. Margins, probabilities, intervals, and ratings use the model selected above.

Swipe horizontally to see all columns; the district column remains fixed.
CandidatesVs. Basic80% interval

Data sources and freshness

Observed, modeled, missing, and imputed values are distinguished in district details. Supporting data remain downloadable.

How to read this forecast

Basic is the default guardrail: the poll-adjusted presidential baseline plus 20% of CMO expected performance.

Fundamentals+ uses the same inputs and applies the full CMO expected-performance adjustment. It is more responsive to district context and less conservative than Basic.

Conditional probability estimates.

District probabilities use a zero-centered six-point normal calibration, selected after forward-cycle and leave-state-out tests on 1,188 recent Southern legislative races. Basic and Fundamentals+ use the same calibration applied to their respective margins.

Seat distributions are exact independent-seat calculations conditional on the displayed national environment. A different national environment should be viewed as a separate shared scenario, not hidden inside every district's error band.

Districts with only one major-party nominee are treated as fixed Democratic or Republican seats in chamber summaries. Independent-only and otherwise unresolved districts remain unmodeled and are displayed in gray.

The national-environment projection uses polling through the date shown above and should be refreshed as new polling becomes available.