In 2010, Republicans won back the state legislature for the first time in 136 years, granting them exclusive power to redistrict. After the 2000 Census, Democrats had drawn a fairly partisan map with an eye towards holding onto the Huntsville area 5th District and gaining the 3rd District in the east-central part of the state. Democrats did unexpectedly pick up the heavily GOP 2nd CD for a term in 2008, but were never able to defeat Republican Mike Rogers in the 3rd and only held the 5th until 2009, when Democrat Parker Griffith suddenly switched parties and lost to Republican Mo Brooks in a subsequent primary.
So in 2011, Republicans simply unraveled the Democrats' old map. They solidified Brooks by moving the old Yellow Dog stronghold of Colbert County into the 4th District, and boosted their other freshman, Republican Martha Roby, by moving most of Montgomery's black precincts back into the African-American packed 7th District. Joe Reed, the head of the Alabama Democratic Conference, suggested that it would be possible to draw a second majority-black seat. But in November 2011,
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