Kay Ivey

State Treasurer (2003-2011)

Ivey is sworn into a second term as State Treasurer by Jeff Sessions in 2007

Ivey took office as state treasurer in 2003, after defeating Stephen Black, the grandson of former United States Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, in the 2002 general election, by a margin of 52–48%.^[8] In 2006, Ivey was re-elected over Democrat Steve Segrest by a 60–40% margin.^[9] She was the first Republican elected state treasurer since Reconstruction.^[10]

As Treasurer, Ivey also oversaw the near complete financial collapse of the Prepaid Affordable College Tuition (PACT) program. Under this program tens of thousands of Alabama families were assured by the state that their investment in the program would guarantee their children four years of tuition at any state college.^[4] Following the program's inception, many of the state's colleges increased the cost of tuition at triple the inflation rate (or more), so the program became financially unsustainable and was subsequently bailed out by the Alabama state legislature.^[11] This unprecedented and unforeseen increase in tuition was not taken into account when the program was developed.

Taking office and first months as Governor

Ivey was sworn in as Governor following the resignation of Robert Bentley on April 10, 2017. She is the second female Governor in the state's history. The first was Lurleen Wallace, the wife of George Wallace; she was Governor for about 16 months in 1967 and 1968, until her death from cancer.^[26]

In April 2017, Ivey signed a bill into law that barred judges from overruling a jury's recommendation on the death penalty in sentencing in capital murder cases. Previously, Alabama had been the only state with a "judicial override" that allowed a judge to sentence a defendant to death even though a jury had recommended a sentence of life without parole. Before the bill was passed, Alabama's capital sentencing scheme was viewed as having been likely to have been struck down as unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.^[27][28]

In May 2017, Ivey signed into law:

• a bill to speed up death-penalty appeals and hasten executions in Alabama.^[29]
• a bill barring the removal of any monuments on public display, or the renaming of any public street or building, that had existed for 40 years or more – effectively protecting the state's Confederate monuments.^[30]
• a bill banning crossover voting (the practice of a voter casting a ballot in one party's primary election and then casting a ballot in other party's runoff elections).^[31]
• a bill allowing faith-based adoption agencies to refuse to place children with gay couples. This bill was criticized by the Human Rights Campaign.^[32][33]

Announcement of 2018 gubernatorial candidacy

In September 2017, Ivey officially announced that she is running for election to a full term in the 2018 gubernatorial election.^[34][35][36]

Actions regarding 2017 special election for U.S. Senate

Former U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) resigned from that office in February 2017 to serve as U.S. Attorney General, whereupon then-Governor Bentley chose Luther Strange to succeed Sessions in the Senate until a special election which Bentley controversially scheduled to align with the 2018 general election instead of sooner.^[37][38] When Ivey succeeded Bentley, she rescheduled the special election for December 12, 2017.^[39]

After former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore won the Republican nomination for that U.S. Senate seat, The Washington Post published an article revealing allegations of sexual abuse against minors by Moore, which caused many Republican voters and groups in Alabama to withdraw their support for him. There began to be discussion as to whether Ivey would delay the election to allow the Republicans to field an alternative candidate. Ivey subsequently said: "The election date is set for December 12. Were [Strange] to resign I would simply appoint somebody to fill the remaining time until we have the election on December 12."^[40] Ivey stated on November 17 that although she has no reason to disbelieve the allegations, she intends to vote for Moore to protect the Republican majority in the U.S. Senate. That statement generated heavy criticism upon Ivey.^[41][42][43] Moore went on to lose the special election to former U.S. Attorney and Democratic nominee Doug Jones.^[44] On December 28, Ivey and Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill certified the senatorial election result despite an attempt by the Moore campaign to delay certification over accusations of voter fraud.^[45]