Gov. Robert Bentley announced on Tuesday in a press release that the special election to replace Alabama’s vacant U.S. Senate seat and the position of Alabama’s attorney general would be held on Nov. 6, 2018, the day of the regularly scheduled
 general election.

Following the appointment of Jeff Sessions to the position of U.S. attorney general, Bentley appointed Luther Strange, previously the Alabama attorney general, to Sessions’s seat.

Bentley noted in the press release that the reasons for the special election to be held in 2018, are the cost of holding an election and the hope to have high voter turnout. Had Sessions and Strange not vacated their positions, their seats would have been up for reelection at the time of the new special election.

Prior to Strange’s appointment, the Alabama Attorney General’s office began an investigation into Bentley’s alleged misuse of public funds to cover up an his alleged extra-marital affair. Strange’s office instructed the investigation to stop. In naming Strange, Bentley also got to name his successor as attorney general: 
Steve Marshall.