After surviving both a health scare and a full slate of Republican challengers in the primary, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey is poised to win a second full term Tuesday against Democrat Yolanda Flowers, the first Black woman to win a major party’s gubernatorial nomination in the state, and a third candidate.
While Flowers’ candidacy is an interesting historical footnote, it posed little threat to the GOP’s control of all three branches of government in a majority-white, conservative state where voting patterns typically break down by skin color.
The only real question may be the size of Ivey’s victory in a race that included Flowers, an educator and political unknown who campaigned heavily on her Christian faith and justice issues, and Libertarian Jimmy Blake, a former Birmingham City Council member.
Ivey, who turned 78 in October, avoided a runoff in the spring despite facing eight Republican challengers who forced her to the right. Ivey parroted former President Donald Trump’s lies about election theft and aired a campaign commercial in which she pulled a pistol out of her purse.
After the primary, Ivey — who was diagnosed with early-stage lung cancer in 2019 and later said the disease was gone — was faced with questions about her health after she disappeared from public view for almost three weeks during the summer. She later refused to say whether she underwent any medical treatment.
While Ivey’s absence made headlines, any doubts or concerns about her health haven’t seemed to have any effect on her chances of victory.
In her re-election bid, Ivey has ignored her opponents and instead touted the state’s low unemployment rate and opposition to the policies of Democratic President Joe Biden. She had a campaign bank balance of more than $200,000 at the end of September compared to just $546 for Flowers, records showed.
Ivey first became governor in April 2017, when she was elevated from the office of lieutenant governor following the resignation of Robert Bentley, who quit in a plea agreement following a scandal over his relationship with a female staffer. Ivey defeated an experienced, well-known Democratic challenger, Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox, by 20 percentage points in 2018 to claim her first full term.
Republished with the permission of The Associated Press.
