Martha Roby

The 2nd district had long been a conservative district, and Roby won a second term, defeating Democrat Therese Ford 64–36%.

She won 11 of the district's 15 counties.

She lost her home county of Montgomery by a margin of 53–47%.

Roby won the election with 67.34% of the vote, defeating Democratic nominee Erick Wright.

Martha Kehres Roby (née Dubina; born July 26, 1976) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the U.S. representative for Alabama's 2nd congressional district from 2011 to 2021.

She entered the Samford University Cumberland School of Law at Birmingham, Alabama, receiving her J.D. in 2001.

Before entering politics, she worked at the law firm of Copeland, Franco.

Roby was elected to the Montgomery City Council in 2003, defeating a total of five opponents, and winning 54.88% of the votes cast in her district.

In her first term on the council, Roby joined 3 other council members and then mayor Bobby Bright in opposing the building of a shopping mall in East Montgomery.

She also opposed privatizing the disposal of household garbage, supported a 10 cent cigarette tax increase, and argued for a state sales tax holiday.

Roby challenged incumbent Democratic U.S. Congressman and former Montgomery Mayor Bobby Bright in Alabama's 2nd congressional district.

In the four-candidate Republican primary, Roby ranked first with 49% of the vote, narrowly missing the 50% threshold needed to win the nomination and avoid a run-off.

Rick Barber ranked second with 29% of the vote.

In the run-off election, Roby defeated him 60–40%.

A member of the Republican Party, she defeated the incumbent Democratic U.S. Representative Bobby Bright in 2010.

That year, Roby and Terri Sewell became the first women elected to Congress from Alabama in regular elections.

The 2010 race was one of the most expensive races in the district's history.

Roby spent a total of $1,240,275.64 on her 2010 election.

Most of her funds came from large individual contributions.

Her top contributor was Jim Wilson and Associates, a Montgomery real estate developer, who contributed $25,300.

Leadership PACs contributed a total of $106,010.

Roby defeated Bright by 51–49%, a difference of 4,780 votes.

Roby won 7 of the district's 16 counties: Autauga, Elmore, Covington, Coffee, Geneva, Dale, and Houston Counties.

Bright won Montgomery County with 59% of the vote.

In her run for re-election to her seat, she received the endorsements of 36 mayors in Alabama, the Alabama Farmers Federation, and Susan B. Anthony List.

Roby defeated Bobby Bright, the incumbent she first defeated in 2010 and who had since switched to the Republican Party, in the Republican primary and subsequent run-off.

She received 68% of the vote in the run-off.

In the general election, she defeated Democratic nominee Tabitha Isner with 61.4% of the vote.

In December 2011, Roby voted in support of H.R. 10, the "Regulations From the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act," which would have required congressional approval for any "major regulations" issued by the executive branch but, unlike the 1996 Congressional Review Act, would not require the president's signature or override of a probable presidential veto.

In 2011, approximately 41,000 households in Roby's congressional district received food stamps.

Roby voted in September 2013 to cut $39 billion from the food stamp program.

On March 1, 2016, Roby won the Republican primary with 64% of the vote.

She won the general election with 48.8% of the vote.

Democrat Nathan Mathis received 40.5% of the vote and write-in candidates received 10.7% of the vote.

In February 2017, she voted against a resolution that would have directed the House to request 10 years of Trump's tax returns, which would then have been reviewed by the House Ways and Means Committee in a closed session.

In 2017, Roby also co-sponsored a bipartisan bill to require sexual harassment and anti-discrimination training for all House members, employees, staff and unpaid personnel.

The bill passed the House.

On July 26, 2019, Roby announced she would retire from Congress at the end of her fifth term, which ended in 2021.

Martha Dubina was born in Montgomery, Alabama, to Joel Dubina, a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

She attended New York University, where she received a Bachelor of Music degree.