On paper, state Sens. Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman, and Steve Livingston, R-Scottsboro, are similar.
Both north Alabama natives with deep ties to their communities. They’re business owners and family men turned lawmakers. They likely vote the same way on the bills before their chamber.
And now, both want to be president pro tem, the top leader in the Alabama Senate.
The decision before 26 of their GOP colleagues largely comes down to personalities, leadership skills and which man they think will best have their backs in political fights or pressures from outside interests.
Their Dec. 3 decision is needed after Sen. Greg Reed, R-Jasper, the current pro tem, confirmed last week that he’s leaving the Senate to lead the state’s workforce development efforts.
Alabama Daily News spoke with both Gudger and Senate Majority Leader Livingston about why they’re right to be the next pro tem.
Gudger
On July 4 of this year, Gudger was in a near-fatal jet ski accident.
The second-term senator said he’s always considered himself a leader, but three fractured vertebrae, six fractured ribs, a punctured lung and internal bleeding changed his mindset.
“No matter what I touch, I want it to have a positive impact on my family, my friends and the state,” Gudger, 49, told ADN. “And I told myself, if there was an opportunity to do more, I want to do more.
“… This is an opportunity that came in front of me, the first one, and I think it’s the move. God gave me certain attributes so I’m able to lead the Senate to where it needs to go.”
Gudger defeated a GOP incumbent to win his seat in 2018. He’s now the chairman of the Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Development Committee.
“I believe I’m the right person for this job to bring people together and to start communication so that everyone in the Senate gets a voice and is heard and is encouraged to know that they’ve got somebody that’s going to fight for them when they end up in a foxhole by themselves.”
He describes he and Livingston as “two good men with good hearts that are truly humble, wanting to serve the people of Alabama and the Alabama State Senate and our colleagues.”
He also said there’s a distinct difference in their leadership styles.
“I feel like that I will lead with a purpose out front that reflects my colleagues’ ideals …,” he said. “… I think my Senate colleagues know that I will put them first and work for them if I’m their leader, just like I have the last six years.”
Caucus meetings are not open to the public. When the group met last week, several senators told ADN the selection process and candidates were discussed, sometimes heatedly. Gudger said he wanted and asked for a vote on pro tem then, but was happy to respect the wishes of the body to wait until next month.
“… I feel confident in my chances right now,” he said about continuing to talk to members between now and Dec. 3.
There have been two GOP president pro tems since the party took over the Legislature in 2010, Reed and former Sen. Del Marsh, R-Anniston. They have different leadership styles. Asked who he’d be more like, Gudger said he’d try to blend their skills.
“Sen. Marsh is more of an entrepreneurial spirit that got things done,” Gudger said. “He got them done quickly. And even if he was wrong, he would come back and say, ‘Listen, I was wrong, but I made a decision and we went forward.’ And we made quick decisions, because that’s sometimes what you have to do in the Alabama State Senate. Pro Tem Reed is more patient and more diligent and thorough with his thought process and how he ran the Senate, and he was, I want to say, more calculated in his decisions. And from that, I think that I would be a nice mix between the two.”
Gudger said he can bring his colleagues together and give them the communication they need and want.
“I would make sure that influential or outside sources, not only in Montgomery but outside, that influence a lot of the decisions that are made now would be second compared to my colleagues who would come first,” he said. “And I think that’s important for all the senators to realize that I’ve got their back as their leader, first, and then second, we can work together as a team as we go forward.”
Livingston
When he was a first-year senator in 2015, Livingston said he’d sit in the back of the chamber, watching colleagues like the late Sen. Jimmy Holly, R-Elba, who knew “the Senate rules backward and forward.”
“I would watch and admire the process, and make sure I understood the process,” he said. “I also learned that a lot of the process didn’t just happen on the Senate floor.”
In the last 10 years, Livingston has progressed to various leadership positions. The Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Development Committee chairmanship, then Confirmations Committee leader. After the 2022 elections, he became the Senate co-chair of the legislative reapportionment committee that had to redraw last year the congressional districts. In late 2023, he was voted majority leader by his colleagues.
“I’ve been able to show my leadership skills over the years and step forward,” Livingston, 68, said.
“I am the person with the steady hand here,” Livingston said. “I’m not up and down. I have progressed into a role of leadership through those previous positions.”
And that experience makes him the right fit for president pro tem, he said.
“People, our caucus knows who I am. I’m the same Steve that they see every day. I’ve got the same temperament, level and just calm. I think it’s important that whoever picks up that position has got to have somewhat of a level head. And can’t be reactive, dramatically reactive, one way or the other.”
As majority leader, Livingston runs the caucus’ meetings and he said last week’s meeting was for discussion of the selection process.
“I don’t think there was ever much intention to vote on Tuesday,” he said. “… We set together a process for the majority leader race last year that we had that worked really well, all we had to do this time was change the name to pro tem.”
Between now and Dec. 3, Livingston said he’ll talk to members “to make sure that they have my commitment, that I intend to listen to them.”
“I want to treat them all fairly and equally,” he said. “I want to help them accomplish their priorities, because that’s important to our caucus as a whole. I’m not making commitments for committee chairs or bills, I just want to make sure our members are served in their interests, make sure they’re all involved in the process. They evidently don’t feel like they’ve been involved in the past in the process, and I’ll make sure that they understand that they are going to be part of the process as we move forward.”
Senators did begin discussing last week some of their legislative priorities, including immigration policy and education funding, Livingston said. The full body will need to work together in the upcoming session.
“I hope everybody understands that we need our caucus to be unified when we come out of this,” Livingston said. “We’ve been fortunate that President (Donald) Trump was elected. We have majorities in the (U.S.) House and the Senate, and it seems to me that the Alabama people are asking, counting on us to implement conservative and common sense solutions to our problems.”
Livingston said this is a friendly contest between him and Gudger.
“Whoever wins, we need to be united,” he said.
Asked if he’d be more of a Marsh or a Reed, Livingston said he’ll be more of a Steve.
“It’s my full intention to have members involved in the process,” he said. “It’s important that they can come in and they’re able to tell us what it is that they need to do, or why they don’t like this, why they don’t like that, or why they do like it.
“… I want to help them do what they need to do (for) their district because not all districts 35 are not all the same. They have different needs.”
After Dec. 3
Officially, the president pro tem won’t be decided until the full Senate, including eight Democrats, gavel in for the 2025 session on Feb. 4. But whoever the GOP caucus decides next week is essentially the new leader.
Both men said that win or lose, they’ll work with the other and the rest of their colleagues.
Caucus rules allow the majority leader to run for president pro tem without giving up his current leadership post. If Livingston wins, the caucus will select a new majority leader. If he loses the pro tem race, there is a scenario where a colleague could call for a vote of no confidence and he could have to run for majority leader again. But Gudger said he wouldn’t make that move and as far as he’s concerned, Livingston would keep the leader spot.
The Senate’s longest-serving member, Sen. Jabo Waggoner, R-Vestavia Hills, said no matter what happens, the caucus will unite behind its new leader.
“No question about that,” Waggoner told ADN. “We have two good candidates and at the end of the day, we’ll all join hands and come together.”