Two Republicans and two Democrats are running for their parties’ nomination during Tuesday’s primary elections.

'Super Tuesday’ Alabama 2020 election-day primer: Candidates, sample ballots, poll times and more

AL.com election coverage.

Senate candidates: Who they are, where they stand. Find the statewide judicial candidate races here.

Public Service Commission president - Republicans

Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh, President, Alabama Public Service Commission talks with Huntsville/Madison County Leadership Class 26 in Montgomery March 6, 2013 (Bob Gathany / bgathany@al.com)HVT

Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh

Cavanaugh, 53, has been president of the Alabama Public Service Commission since 2010.

In that office, Cavanaugh says she helped reduce the size of state government by reducing the size of the PSC staff by 20%. She also refused a state car and other perks that normally come with the PSC presidency. She said she encouraged economic growth by promoting business incentives and “consistently taking the EPA to task on their over-reaching regulations,” according to her PSC bio page.

Cavanaugh also said she has pushed for methods to help homeowners reduce their utility rates, and worked with farmers to keep their utility costs down. Cavanaugh, an Auburn University graduate who lives in Montgomery, served as deputy chief of staff to former Gov. Bob Riley, and as executive director of the Alabama Republican Party. She also served as the state director of Citizens for a Sound Economy, a national organization promoting lower taxes for American families. Cavanaugh ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 2018, losing to Will Ainsworth in a runoff. She is the co-owner of Cavanaugh Bradley Animal Hospital and the consulting firm Conservative Solutions.

- Robin Litaker is running for president of the Alabama Public Service Commission. Contributed by Robin LitakerContributed by Robin Litaker

Robin Litaker

Litaker, 60, is a former elementary school teacher and school administrator from Hoover. She said she is running as a Republican for Public Service Commission president “to ensure that Alabama’s taxpayers and ratepayers are represented fairly.” Litaker, who attended the Birmingham School of Law after retiring from 32 years in education, said Alabama’s history of public corruption drove her to run for office. She holds a doctorate in educational leadership from Samford University, an education degree from the University of Montevallo and a bachelor’s and master’s in physical education from Winthrop College.

“In my career as an educator, I had to uphold a high standard of excellence, and I was held accountable to the public in everything I did,” she said on her campaign Facebook page. “Why should government be any different?” She said that running for office should be something attainable for all Americans, not just the privileged or people with powerful corporate donors. On her campaign website she pledges to publish monthly a log of what she does every day at work, who she meets with and why, and why she votes the way she does during monthly commission meetings.

Public Service Commission president - Democrats

When three members of the public tried to live stream an Alabama Public Service Commission meeting, the PSC had them escorted from the meeting. Now one of those three, Laura Casey, is suing the PSC under the Alabama Open Meetings Act.

Laura Casey

Casey is an attorney and former actuary running for the Alabama Public Service Commission presidency on a platform of bringing the commission’s work out from behind closed doors. Casey, 48, recently filed a lawsuit against the commission when she was barred from live streaming on Facebook a PSC hearing regarding a service charge on people who have solar panels. When Casey attempted to livestream the hearing, her phone was confiscated. “Alabama has lacked meaningful energy regulation for decades. As a result, we are the third poorest state in the nation paying the second highest power bills,” Casey said in a statement to AL.com. “This as the PSC rubber-stamps power rates that both pay Alabama Power the highest profit margin (by far) of any regulated utility in America, and effectively block residential solar use from the two-thirds of the state who rely on Alabama Power. That’s not governance, that’s theft. We are one of only 11 states that elects its utility board. We are failing ourselves. It’s time to stop.”

- Robert L. Mardis III is running for Public Service Commission president. Contributed by Robert L. Mardis IIIContributed by Robert L. Mardis

Robert L. Mardis III

Mardis III is a 31-year-old Birmingham business owner who is running for Public Service Commission president on a climate change platform. Mardis, who is co-owner of Mardis Properties LLC, recently told the Daily Mountain Eagle at a forum in Jasper that “climate change will kill us, and we’re still not listening. How long is it going to take for us to listen? So that is what I want to work on Day 1 as president of the Public Service Commission of Alabama, is addressing climate change.”

Mardis said during the Jasper forum that he’s not against utility companies, but he is against those companies making “unreasonable profits.” He said he is against a $1.1 billion proposal from Alabama Power to expand its natural gas capacity. He said experts have done studies that say the extra capacity is not needed and that Alabamians would have to pay for it with a rate increase. Mardis is president of the Birmingham Young Democrats and ran unsuccessfully for the Jefferson County Board of Education in 2018.