Kicked off the GOP ballot, Jesse Battles is on the November ballot anyway. Here is his case.

RAINBOW CITY, AL – Jesse Battles will be on the ballot in November for Alabama Senate District 10. He will not be there as a Republican, and he says that was not his choice.

The Attalla businessman was removed from the Republican primary ballot in February by the Alabama Republican Party’s 21-member Steering Committee. He spent the spring gathering signatures, qualified as an independent, and now faces two-term incumbent Sen. Andrew Jones of Centre on Nov. 3.

Battles sat down with GadsdenThrive for a long interview about the removal, the signature drive and what he wants for the district. It was the first interview held in his new campaign headquarters on Steele Station Road in Rainbow City. He still calls himself a Republican, and he says he expects to work with the Republican caucus in Montgomery if he wins.

“I put years of equity into the Republican Party,” he said.

Why was Jesse Battles removed from the Republican primary ballot?

The short answer is a ballot challenge over work he did in 2018.

Battles had qualified to run in the May 19 Republican primary against Jones and Rainbow City challenger Amy Dozier Minton. In late January, a Jefferson County resident filed a challenge to his ballot access. The party’s Steering Committee heard the matter in mid-February and voted to take him off.

The core charge was that Battles had done paid political work for Craig Ford in 2018, when Ford ran for the same Senate seat as an independent. Party bylaws bar members from supporting candidates who run against Republicans.

Battles does not deny the work. He said Ford called him about a month after he graduated from Jacksonville State University and offered him ten dollars an hour to put up campaign signs. Ford had been his middle school football coach.

“I’m not hiding from it. I’ve never lied about it,” he said.

His argument was about timing. The party’s standard lookback window for these disputes runs six years, he said, and 2018 was eight years back. He said local Republican leaders told him before he qualified that the old work would not be a problem for that reason.

Battles said the challenge went further than the Ford campaign. He said it included photographs of him with Attalla Mayor Larry Means, a former Democratic state senator, taken at a Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting and at Heritage Day. He said it also pointed to his wife’s job in the Gadsden mayor’s office, which she held for a few months before going to work for U.S. Sen. Katie Britt.

He said the drive home from Montgomery after the hearing was one of the longest of his life.

How did he get on the November ballot?

By petition, and fast.

Alabama requires independent candidates to submit signatures equal to 3 percent of the votes cast for governor in the district in the last general election. For Senate District 10 that came to 1,142 valid signatures. Battles said his campaign collected well over 3,000 in about three weeks, roughly 2,000 more than the law required. The Alabama Secretary of State’s office certified his ballot access in June.

Jones’ campaign has raised questions about how quickly those signatures came in. Battles said that question belongs somewhere else.

He said the Secretary of State’s office verified the signatures, and anyone who doubts them should take it up with that office.

Is Battles still a Republican?

He says yes, and he says he will caucus with Republicans if he wins.

Alabama has a Republican supermajority in both chambers. Battles said he is not going to be stubborn about that at the district’s expense.

He said he wants to work with the people in leadership so the district does not lose out, and he expects Republicans to welcome him back after the election.

He also drew a line between the party and its leadership. He said the Republican Party did not remove him, the establishment inside the party did, and he said there are good Republicans in Etowah County he has no quarrel with.

That fight has already cost someone else a seat. Party Chairman Scott Stadthagen announced this summer that state executive committee member Jaxon Phillips of St. Clair County had resigned ahead of a party meeting. Phillips was working as press secretary and campaign consultant for Battles, and he faced a challenge to his qualifications to serve. Battles said he did not ask Phillips to resign and believes Phillips wanted to avoid a distraction before November.

What does Battles say District 10 needs most?

Roads first. He wants the I-759 extension in east Gadsden finished, and he says that is the first thing he would work on.

The project, now called the East Gadsden Connector, would carry the highway about two miles from its current end to the U.S. 431 and U.S. 278 split. ALDOT committed roughly $65 million to it in 2022. Battles wants it carried east toward Hokes Bluff, and he wants a four-lane connection from Attalla out to the interstate as well.

His pitch is about recruiting industry. He said he wants to tell a company that its site is two traffic lights from the interstate.

He said he would get the district’s mayors in a car and take them to Montgomery to make that case together, rather than going alone.

What does he want at the megasite?

Battles has served about two years on the Gadsden-Etowah Industrial Development Authority board. He said the NEAR Megasite already has the utilities it needs, along with rail service, and that the next step is connecting the site directly to the interstate.

He also wants a fire station built on the site. He said a plant housing 1,500 workers needs emergency response on the property, not down the road. He pointed to Huntsville as the model and said there is no reason to reinvent the wheel.

He also wants the site held for a large employer. He said he does not want to see anything built there with fewer than 1,000 jobs.

“If we settle, we’re settling forever,” he said.

Etowah County commissioners have been weighing a $194,500 study of a 190-acre addition to the site. GadsdenThrive reported on that proposal in Etowah County weighs $194,500 study of a 190-acre addition to the NEAR Megasite.

Where does he differ from Andrew Jones?

Asked to name one vote he would have cast differently, Battles pointed to the gas tax.

The Rebuild Alabama Act passed in a special session in March 2019, early in Jones’ first term. It raised the fuel tax by 10 cents a gallon, phased in over three years, and tied future increases to a construction cost index. The Senate passed it 28-6.

Battles said he understands the roads and bridges need work. His objection is the structure. He said he does not believe in giving government a blank check that rises over time without another vote.

He said he would not be a rubber stamp for a similar deal, and that political action committees from Montgomery have already offered his campaign money he turned down.

It is worth noting that the I-759 extension Battles wants completed is funded through Rebuild Alabama, the same law that raised the fuel tax.

GadsdenThrive has requested an interview with Jones and will publish his responses when we receive them.

Who is Jesse Battles?

Battles is a seventh-generation resident of northeast Alabama. He lives in Attalla with his wife, Melissa, and their young daughter, who was born in January. He said his grandparents, an aunt and a brother all live nearby.

He holds degrees from Gadsden State Community College and Jacksonville State University, where he rebuilt the College Republicans chapter after finding it inactive. He said his goal there was to bring candidates onto campus so students could meet the people who would represent them.

He worked on a U.S. Senate campaign in Montgomery and then in the Alabama Secretary of State’s office, where he helped enforce the state’s voter ID law. He came home, started a small business, and joined the Rotary Club, the Chamber of Commerce and the Industrial Development Authority board. He said people kept asking him to run.

His grandfather worked at Goodyear. Battles said that job gave his family a life, and that the county lost a lot of those opportunities when the plant closed.

How would he work with local officials?

This is where Battles says he differs most from his opponent.

He said his job is not to tell local mayors and councils what to do. He said he wants to ask local leaders what they need and then be a resource.

“What does success look like to you, and how can I help you be a resource to be successful?” he said he asks.

“I believe in government from the bottom up, not the top down,” he said.

He said he has a good relationship with mayors across the district and would not put any of them in the position of choosing publicly between him and Jones. He said they have their own cities to worry about.

He has not talked with Gadsden Mayor Craig Ford about this race. Ford ran the same independent play for this seat in 2018 and lost to Jones. Battles said Ford is in his own election right now and he did not want to pull him into it, but that the two will work together after the votes are counted.

What happens next

Jones won the May 19 Republican primary over Minton by 8,308 votes to 7,127, a margin of about 54 percent to 46 percent. He carried all three counties in the district, though the Etowah County margin was only 206 votes. No Democrat qualified for the seat.

That leaves Jones and Battles on the Nov. 3 general election ballot. District 10 covers Etowah County, Cherokee County and part of DeKalb County.

Gadsden voters have a municipal election before that, on Aug. 25. GadsdenThrive’s full rundown of those races is in the Gadsden 2026 voter’s guide.

GadsdenThrive interviewed Battles at his Rainbow City campaign headquarters in August 2026. Quotes are from that interview unless noted. GadsdenThrive has invited Sen. Andrew Jones to sit for the same interview.

Frequently asked questions

Who is running for Alabama Senate District 10 in 2026?

Incumbent Republican Sen. Andrew Jones of Centre and independent Jesse Battles of Attalla. No Democrat qualified.

When is the election?

Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026.

Why was Jesse Battles not on the Republican primary ballot?

The Alabama Republican Party’s Steering Committee removed him in February after a ballot challenge alleging he violated party bylaws by doing paid work for Craig Ford’s 2018 independent campaign. Battles says the work fell outside the party’s six-year lookback window.

How did Battles qualify as an independent?

By petition. The district required 1,142 valid signatures. His campaign submitted more than 3,000, and the Alabama Secretary of State’s office certified his ballot access in June.

What counties are in Senate District 10?

Etowah County, Cherokee County and part of DeKalb County.

Will Battles caucus with Republicans if he wins?

He says yes. He describes himself as a Republican and says he expects to work with Republican leadership in Montgomery.