POINT CLEAR, Ala. — The Business Council of Alabama has surpassed its original $4 million fundraising goal to be a major player in the 2026 election cycle and bumped the target to $5 million.
Last year, BCA leaders pledged to recruit and defend 2026 pro-business candidates across the state.
Gary Smith, chair of the BCA’s political action committee, Progress PAC, gave updated numbers Saturday morning at the council’s annual Government Affairs Conference. The PAC has taken in about $4.2 million to support business-minded candidates.
In information provided to Alabama Daily News, the BCA said it will “prioritize electing pro-business leaders—leaders who won’t buckle under pressure, who understand the risks you take every day as business owners, and who will champion the values that unite us: free enterprise, opportunity, innovation, and accountability.”
Smith noted that 2026 will be critical and competitive. Term limits mean several offices, including that of the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and ag commissioner are open in 2026. Candidate shuffling has also opened up the secretary of state and auditor posts. And the state’s 140 members of the Legislature are up for reelection, if they choose to run.
“We want to be more intentional about supporting our friends, and then those on the other side, those who aren’t our friends, we don’t intend to support them,” Smith said.
Progress PAC has already doled out donations, including $100,000 to former Alabama Supreme Court Associate Justice Jay Mitchell’s bid for attorney general. He and Katherine Robertson, the chief counsel to current AG Steve Marshall, are in a tight fundraising battle.
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.
Aside from Mitchell, ProgressPAC has endorsed and given $25,000 each to Speaker of the House Nathaniel Ledbetter and Senate President Pro Tem Garlan Gudger. Neither leader has an announced opponent in 2026.
Others on the PAC’s early endorsement list are gubernatorial candidate U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville and John Roberts, a candidate in the open Alabama Senate District 2.