The chamber of the Alabama House of Representatives in the Alabama Statehouse is seen on April 8, 2026. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)
Republican voters in a northwest Alabama House district will choose between a former city official and a travel ball coordinator to represent them in the State House.
Voters in House District 17, which includes Lamar, Marion and Winston Counties, will choose between Phillip Segraves, the former mayor of Guin, who received 3,616 (49.72%) votes in the May 19 GOP primary, and Micheal Beck, a travel ball coordinator, who had 1,936 (26.62%) votes in official returns.
Beck said in an interview Friday one of the main issues in the race has been gambling.
“Every dollar, every dime spent on gambling is money taken away from putting food on people’s table,” he said. “Because you go look at this thing, the people that are gambling the most are the people that need the money the most, because they’re trying to hit it big. And so what it does is it makes our area, especially the rural areas where we live at, it makes them poor.”
Messages seeking comment were left with Segraves Friday. According to his website, Segraves wants to support education by “getting politics out of the classroom.”
Beck also plans on supporting education, particularly through career and technical education classes.
“Everybody don’t want to go, go to school and be a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher, you know, everybody don’t want to do that, some people want to go out here and work with their hands like their parents did, and we need to educate them on how to do that as well, and so we’re behind,” he said.
During this year’s legislative session, Reps. James Lomax, R-Huntsville and Marcus Paramore, R-Troy, filed bills that addressed career and technical education courses in schools. The bills were signed into law in April.
Beck said one hurdle this election will be getting voters to go to the polls again. Voter turnout in the state was at 23% and is expected to decrease for the runoff.
“I think the reason there’s not any interest is that people have gotten sick and fed up with politicians,” Beck said. “If you’re sick and fed up with a career politician, then you need to vote for me, because the guy I’m running against is a career politician.”
No Democrats qualified for the general election. The seat is currently held by Rep. Tracy Estes, R-Winfield, who did not seek re-election.
Meet the Candidates
Micheal Beck
Age: 53
Residence: Winfield
Occupation: Travel ball coordinator
Education: B.A Health, Physical Education, and Recreation University of North Alabama (1996); Master’s in Educational Leadership, University of South Alabama (2006)
Party: Republican
Previous political experience: None
Campaign fundraising: Raised $42,800 and spent $82,800 as of Friday.
Efforts to reach Phillip Segraves were unsuccessful.
From Alabama Reflector Post Url: Visit
Author: Andrea Tinker