On August 17, the Alabama Democratic Party State Executive Committee voted to remove its nominee for Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. See this story. The removal was based on comments that the nominee, Harry Lyon, had been making. The party replaced him with Bob Vance, a lower state court judge.

Alabama has partisan elections for State Judicial elections. Alabama law already permitted state political parties to prevent candidates from seeking a place on a primary ballot, based on whether the party perceives that the candidates is a loyal member of the party. But it seems somewhat surprising that Alabama also permits parties to remove their nominees, based on what the nominees say about political issues, after the primary is over. Lyon had been the only person who filed to run in the Democratic primary, which had been held in March.