# Rodger Smitherman

Rodger Smitherman is a Democratic member of the Alabama Senate for district 18.

- Party: Democrat
- Seat: Alabama Senate, district 18
- Serving since: 1995-11-08
- Current term: AL 2025–26 session
- Open States ID: ocd-person/3b925820-55f7-4d24-b4df-d924fd3d1bf7

Source: https://americaspoliticalpulse.com/p/3b925820-55f7-4d24-b4df-d924fd3d1bf7 (America’s Political Pulse, Polarization Research Lab), data through 2026-10-27. Data under CC BY 4.0. Cite as: Westwood, Sean J., and Yphtach Lelkes. 2024. America's Political Pulse [data set].

## Headline

Smitherman sits at −0.22 on the CSIP scale, more conservative than 95% of State Senate Democrats.

## Ideology (CSIP)

CSIP score −0.22 (standard error 0.02), from 4 donors and 561 roll calls. Negative is left of 0, positive right of it, on one scale for every official. 95% of State Senate Democrats score lower.

## Legislation (AL 2025–26 session)

Sponsored 23 bills: 23 reached committee, 13 passed one chamber, 10 passed both, 10 became law. Cosponsored 0. 56.5% of sponsored bills got out of committee (Alabama Senate 60.8%; rank 22 of 35).

Recent sponsored bills:

- SB 364: Public K-12 education; violence prevention, conflict resolution, and mediation instruction required before graduation from high school beginning in sixth… (became law, 2026-04-17) https://openstates.org/al/bills/2026rs/SB364/
- SJR 53: Alicia Cannon, commended (became law, 2026-03-05) https://openstates.org/al/bills/2026rs/SJR53/
- SB 311: Education Trust Fund; supplemental appropriation year ending 2026 (in committee, 2026-02-17) https://openstates.org/al/bills/2026rs/SB311/
- SJR 45: Alicia Cannon, commended (became law, 2026-03-03) https://openstates.org/al/bills/2026rs/SJR45/
- SB 305: Campus chaplains; public K-12 schools authorized to accept as volunteers, local boards of education and governing bodies authorized to vote on whether to… (passed one chamber, 2026-02-26) https://openstates.org/al/bills/2026rs/SB305/
- SB 262: Jefferson County; sheriff compensation revised (in committee, 2026-02-05) https://openstates.org/al/bills/2026rs/SB262/
- SB 244: Relating to Alabama Housing Trust Fund; mortgage recording fee increase (in committee, 2026-02-03) https://openstates.org/al/bills/2026rs/SB244/
- SB 239: Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Enforcement Act; certain temporary emergency child custody determinations authorized to become final (became law, 2026-03-13) https://openstates.org/al/bills/2026rs/SB239/
- SB 243: Jefferson County, pistol permits further provided for (passed one chamber, 2026-03-12) https://openstates.org/al/bills/2026rs/SB243/
- SB 195: Decedents' estates, will contests, removal to circuit court authorized (became law, 2026-03-12) https://openstates.org/al/bills/2026rs/SB195/

## Campaign money (2026 cycle)

Itemized receipts $297.0K (State Senate Democrats median $55.5K). 100% of itemized individual money came from in state. Aggregates only; no individual donors.

## Links

- Official site: https://alison.legislature.state.al.us/senate-leaders-members?tab=1&search=smitherman
- Campaign site: http://rodgersmitherman.com/
- X: https://x.com/SenateDist18
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rodger.smitherman/

Full profile, with every chart and the methods: https://americaspoliticalpulse.com/p/3b925820-55f7-4d24-b4df-d924fd3d1bf7