Opinion | The real economic killer in Alabama? Moral politics, not the market

Alabama is on the edge of a cliff.

With each passing legislative session, it becomes more apparent: we are one election away from a government that no longer views economic growth as a priority. One cycle away from power landing fully in the hands of those more interested in policing identity, banning innovation, and enforcing personal morality than solving real problems.

This is no longer abstract. It’s happening.

In 2024, Alabama lawmakers prioritized banning lab-grown meat, killing off a sector of the biotech industry before it could even take root here. They outlawed diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in higher education, sending a clear signal to national and global employers that inclusion is unwelcome. They passed a law defining sex in a way that invalidates transgender Alabamians and banning pride flags in classrooms, even as we’re losing teachers and students to other states.

This year, they doubled down.

HB8 and HB445 threaten to devastate hundreds of small businesses statewide. These Republican-backed bills would effectively outlaw flavored vapes and ban smokable hemp products — not based on economic harm or public health policy, but on moral objections. The result? Millions in lost revenue. Convenience stores will be forced to cut their workforce. Thriving hemp shops will be shuttered. Hundreds of working-class Alabamians — clerks, franchise owners, warehouse workers — left without a paycheck. All because lawmakers in Montgomery substituted ideology for evidence.

If that wasn’t enough, they mandated the display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms — an unconstitutional distraction masquerading as governance. It won’t raise test scores. It won’t feed a child. It won’t bring a single dollar of investment into this state. But it plays well to the cameras.

This is the pattern now. A Christian nationalist agenda wrapped in the language of virtue, wielded to control, restrict and punish — often at the direct expense of Alabama’s economy. The list grows longer every year: bans on inclusive books, attempts to jail librarians, attacks on gender-affirming care, and classroom censorship disguised as parental rights.

And as business interests have stayed silent, their influence has waned. Once a driving force in state politics, the business community now watches from the sidelines while lawmakers push policies that repel investment, undermine innovation, and handicap future growth.

As culture wars consume the legislative agenda, a political realignment is quietly underway — one where traditional pro-business leadership is being edged out by ideologues with little regard for economic fallout.

Let’s be clear: Alabama didn’t rise through culture wars. We grew because of sound partnerships — like the one that brought Hyundai to Montgomery, Toyota to Huntsville, and Mercedes to Vance. We thrived when public and private sectors worked hand-in-hand to expand broadband, invest in our ports, and grow our workforce.

But now, those public-private efforts are underfunded or have fallen out of political favor. Instead of laying economic groundwork for the next generation, this legislature obsesses over symbolism and surveillance. We’re stuck in a spiral of government that talks about freedom while legislating control.

The 2026 GOP primary may well decide Alabama’s economic fate. Will we choose serious leaders — those who understand that prosperity requires stability, investment, and vision? Or will we hand power to politicians more interested in staging ideological crusades than solving real problems?

We need to identify and support true pro-business Republicans — not those who claim the mantle and then vote to ban products, block growth, or walk away from opportunity. We need to recognize this political moment for what it is: a realignment.

In 2024 and 2025, it was Democrats, not Republicans, who pushed more pro-growth policies. The idea to eliminate the state tax on overtime wages? That wasn’t a GOP initiative. It was the brainchild of House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels. As Daniels put it: “These are hardworking Alabamians that are putting into our economy. These are not handouts. These are dollars that they are earning.” Yet, when it came time to extend that benefit in 2025, Republicans let it die, effectively raising taxes by $230 million on the very workers driving our economy.

They say the state needs revenue — then block every comprehensive gaming plan that would generate it. Senator Greg Albritton has estimated that a full gaming package could bring in $750 million to $1 billion annually. That’s money for roads, rural hospitals, schools, and law enforcement. Instead, lawmakers let it wither — again. Because it’s easier to moralize than to govern.

They say they support small business — then push legislation that guts local stores and criminalizes entire product lines. They say they believe in free enterprise — then pick and choose which markets deserve to exist based on personal beliefs.

The Business Council of Alabama understands what’s at stake. “Our goal is to continue to pave the way for systematic reforms that will help businesses grow and flourish,” the BCA declares. And they’ve launched a focused effort for 2026 to support candidates who understand that jobs, not ideology, are what build a state. As ProgressPAC’s Clay Scofield put it: “This is about strategically electing candidates who prioritize jobs and economic growth all across Alabama.”

Here’s the wake-up call: we don’t need to flip the entire legislature to change the tide. Electing just a handful of truly pro-business senators — along with a stronger bloc of representatives who understand the fundamentals of a growth economy — could halt the ideological overreach, refocus the agenda, and return Alabama’s government to its core responsibility: building a better future.

It’s time for business leaders to act like leaders.

Speak up. Organize. Fund candidates who understand that the path to prosperity runs through economic development, not culture wars. If Alabama is to compete — if we are to thrive — we must elect leaders who see government as a catalyst for opportunity, not a cudgel for control.

Because if we wait another cycle, it may be too late.

The future isn’t lost, but it won’t be won by staying silent.