Alabama's 4th congressional district

Infobox U.S. congressional district
state = Alabama
district number = 4

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image width = 300
image caption =
representative = Robert Aderholt
party = Republican
english area =8,524
metric area =
percent urban = 26.5
percent rural =73.5
population = 635,300
population year = 2000
median income = 31,344
percent white = 90.4
percent black = 5.1
percent asian = 0.2
percent native american = 0.4
percent hispanic = 3
percent other race = 0.8
percent blue collar = 40.8
percent white collar =46
percent gray collar = 13.2
cpvi = R+16

Alabama's Fourth Congressional District is a U.S. congressional district in Alabama, which elects a representative to the United States House of Representatives. It encompasses the counties of Franklin, Marion, Lamar, Fayette, Walker, Winston, Cullman, Blount, Marshall, Etowah, and DeKalb. It also includes parts of Morgan and Pickens Counties, as well as parts of the Decatur Metropolitan Area, and the Huntsville-Decatur Combined Statistical Area.

It is currently represented by Republican Robert Aderholt.

Character

Alabama's 4th Congressional district is a collection of smaller towns, mid-major, and major cities north of Birmingham,the largest being Decatur and Gadsden. Other cities in the district include Cullman, Jasper, Russellville, Fort Payne, and Albertville. Stretching right across the state and crossing the Appalachian ranges, this district covers lightly populated rural areas. This district has the lowest percentage of black population in the state.

Only the southeastern portions of Decatur, the areas of Point Mallard, Burningtree Mountain, and Flint, are within the 4th Conrgressional District.

This area of northern Alabama faces the same economic challenges of much of the state - the most prominent being the loss of jobs in areas like textiles or manufacturing to international competitors. Fort Payne - the self-proclaimed sock capital of the world - in particular has drawn political attention to its 150 sock factories which face strong competition from China and India. This district also has a large amount of military veterans.

While Democrats have a substantial majority in voter registration, most of them tend to be quite conservative on social issues; controversial former state supreme court judge Roy Moore is from this area. Some counties voted against secession before the Civil War; they were among the few areas of Alabama to support Republicans prior to the Civil Rights Movement. The district was one of five to elect a Republican in 1964 when Barry Goldwater swept the state. However, it returned to the Democratic fold and remained there for 30 years until it elected a Republican in 1996.

This district gave a 71% vote to George W. Bush in 2004, his second-best performance in the state--behind only the neighboring 6th District. This was a major factor in making the state of Alabama Bush's best southern state (one of the eleven states of the old confederacy) and seventh best overall; even ahead of Texas, considerably more affluent and Bush's home state.

Representation

Election results

2004

External links

* [http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2006/pages/results/states/AL/H/04/ CNN coverage of the 2006 election]
* [http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/AL/ CNN converage of the 2004 election]
* [http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2002/pages/states/AL/index.html CNN converage of the 2002 election]
* [http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2000/results/AL/frameset.exclude.html CNN converage of the 2000 election]