Bachus was born December 28, 1947 in Birmingham and currently lives in Vestavia Hills, a Birmingham suburb. He graduated from Auburn University in 1972 and earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Alabama. He was elected to the Alabama State Senate in 1983, serving one term before moving to the Alabama State House of Representatives for two terms. From 1987 to 1991, he served as the 6th District's representative on the state board of education. He became chairman of the Alabama Republican Party in 1991 and served there until resigning to run for the House. Despite one of the most conservative voting records in the House (only Senator Jeff Sessions and 2nd District Congressman Terry Everett have higher ratings from the American Conservative Union, Bachus was challenged in the 2004 Republican primary by Phillip Jauregui, a member of former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore's legal team. Since no other party ran a candidate, victory in the Republican primary was tantamount to election in November. Jauregui claimed that Bachus wasn't doing enough to curb "judicial activism." However, Bachus won the primary easily, effectively clinching a seventh term. The 6th District had been based in Birmingham for over a century, but after the 1990 census the state legislature was forced to create a majority-black district. They did so by redrawing the Tuscaloosa-based 7th District, adding predominantly black portions of Birmingham and Montgomery. In the process, however, they made the 6th District a heavily Republican district with a population that was almost 97% white. Bachus won the Republican nomination for the seat and faced five-term Democratic incumbent Ben Erdreich. Erdereich outspent Bachus by almost 2 to 1, but could not overcome the heavy Republican tilt of the new district and lost by seven points. Bachus has not faced serious opposition since then, and has been reelected without major-party opposition since 2000.

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