POINT CLEAR, Ala. — The Business Council of Alabama is upping its political efforts in the 2026 elections to support pro-growth candidates, organization officials told a record crowd at its annual Government Affairs Conference.
“(Campaign 2026) is all about strategically electing candidates who prioritize jobs and economic growth all across Alabama,” BCA Vice President Clay Scofield said Saturday morning.
He described a “highly sophisticated and intentional effort to recruit, endorse and support pro-business candidates at all levels of state government” and support them with advanced campaign techniques, “robust” fundraising efforts and grassroots organizing.
“We’ll be actively recruiting candidates and open races all across the state, and defending current pro-business leaders and — and I want you to hear me on this — and we will be holding those accountable who stand in the way of job creation, free market and a strong economy in this state.”
In the 2022 cycle, BCA’s ProgressPac gave about $1.4 million to candidates, most of them in the state Legislature, according to spending records filed with the Alabama Secretary of State.
Term limits mean several offices, including that of the governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general, will be open. And the state’s 140 members of the Legislature are up for reelection, if they choose to run. Many current office holders were among the 772 attendees at the conference.
Will Wilson, chairman of ProgressPAC, said it has already more than halfway to a $4 million fundraising goal set last year for the 2026 election cycle.
“Ladies and gentlemen, it is clear here today that the upcoming 2026 election will be historic,” Wilson said. “In 2026 our voters are going to shape the course of our government for the next decade and profoundly impact business and workers across the state. It’s crucial that we get this right. BCA will be positioned itself to be the premier political leader in the state of Alabama.”
Scofield said the effort would require “substantial funding” and the BCA is launching a “2026 Club” that will give supporters access to focus groups, polling data and “thorough opposition research.”
“We’re counting on our BCA members and donors to really step and support this initiative,” Scofield.
In their respective speeches, both Gov. Kay Ivey and BCA President and Chief Executive Officer Helena Duncan both talked about the importance of business and government working together.
They highlighted pro-business legislation approved in recent years, from the 2019 gas tax increase that’s helped fund so far about 350 road and bridge projects around the state to the “Game Plan” legislation of 2023, which increased the state’s economic incentives for new and expanding businesses, and this year’s “Working for Alabama” package of bills intended to increase workforce participation. It included tax incentives for businesses that help provide child care to employers and more affordable rental housing to high-demand areas.
“We have worked to bring the public sector and the private sector together because we’ve realized something, no longer can Alabama’s policies be done in a silo,” Duncan said. “We have to do this in the future as a public-private partnership.”
Ivey said that efforts to increase broadband internet access, improve roads and invest in rural Alabama help make it a business-friendly state.
“We’re stronger together by joining forces with private sector leaders to ensure our workforce needs are prioritized,” she said.
Conference speakers also celebrated the May vote by workers at two Mercedes-Benz factories not to join the United Auto Workers, an effort the governor and BCA aggressively and strategically opposed.
“The team members at Vance said loud and clear that Alabama’s workers are perfectly capable of thinking for themselves, and they don’t have to be told what to think by the UAW,” Scofield said.