The Alabama Republican Party is the state affiliate of the national Republican Party of the United States. The party was organized after the end of the American Civil War, with its first state convention occurring from 4 to 5 June 1867 in Montgomery, Alabama. The Republican Party was founded upon the ideals of classical liberalism, as it supported the emancipation of African-Americans, increased rights for former slaves, and the punishment of former Confederates. However, the Alabama GOP's 1868 gubernatorial candidate William Hugh Smith was a former slave-holder, and, while Blacks made up 90% of the party's support base, the statewide Republican ticket for 1868 and in nearly all elections after was entirely white. In 1868, the state legislature consisted of 97 Republicans and just 3 Democratic Party members, an obvious effect of Reconstruction on the state; however, the Democrats won the legislature back in 1870, winning 57 seats to the Republicans' 38 (19 of which were African-Americans). After the end of Reconstruction in 1877, the Alabama Democratic Party became the predominant party in the state, and the Republicans went into decline; from 1901 to 1964, all of Alabama's senators were Democrats. During the Republican Party's time in opposition, the Republicans partnered with independent political candidates to keep the Democrats on their toes, and the Republicans even won twelve counties in the 1900 presidential election. The Democrats worried that a coalition of Blacks and poor whites could end their domination of state politics, leading to the adoption of a Jim Crow constitution in 1901 when banned Black participation in Alabama elections. The "Black-and-Tans" remained in power in the Alabama GOP due to President Theodore Roosevelt's refusal to support the "Lily-Whites" and their efforts to make the party a whites-only force, and his intervention in the party from 1901 to 1904 temporarily saved Black-and-Tan control. In 1912, the Alabama GOP backed William Howard Taft with a biracial delegation led by Oscar D. Street, but Street and other new local party leaders began to shrink the level of Black participation in the party. By 1924, Black representation at the RNC from Alabama had dropped to zero and would remain so through the rest of the Jim Crow era.
During the mid-20th century State Party Chairman John Grenier helped to revitalize the party by organizing eight congressional victories, and "the Goldwater Landslide" of 1964 saw Republicans win dozens of local offices in Alabama. In 1980, Jeremiah Denton became the first popularly-elected Republican senator from Alabama in US history; the previous ones had been appointed by the federal government. Guy Hunt's 1986 victory in the gubernatorial election made Alabama a two-party state, shattering the Democrats' monopoly on governance. Jimmy Carter was the last Democrat to carry Alabama, doing so in 1976, with the state becoming solidly Republican as most conservative white Southern Democrats defected to the Republicans. In 2010, 136 years of Democratic control of the state legislature was shattered when the Republicans took over the majority. In June 2017, the party held 26/35 State Senate seats and 72/105 State House seats.
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