Saturday, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey opened her campaign headquarters in Montgomery, where she was joined by a number of prominent supporters and campaign volunteers.
Ivey has been governor for a little bit less than a year, but expressed confidence that the state is on the right path under her leadership. Ivey said that she has righted the ship of state and that a dark cloud is no longer hanging over the state.
“Most Governors get three months to prepare their transition, I got three hours,” Ivey said.
Ivey introduced her dog, Bear, to the assembled crowd. Ivey said that he was 3 years old when she got him and he was already named Bear then so she did not change it, but she did get him an Auburn collar.
When reporters asked Ivey why she would not agree to debate her GOP opponents, she said that it is not her job to run her opponents campaigns for them and she will not be dictated to by the other campaigns or by the media.
The Alabama Political Reporter asked Ivey if she was afraid the President Donald Trump’s tariffs could lead to a trade war that would derail the Alabama economic turnaround.
Ivey said that was just speculation, that we do not know what the president will do yet and that she has talked with all of the car companies doing business in Alabama, has gotten what their concerns are and have expressed that to the White House.
Ivey was sworn in as governor of Alabama in April 2017, just hours after Gov. Robert Bentley resigned on the first day of House Judiciary Committee hearings on impeachment. Bentley pled guilty so misdemeanor campaign finance violations. The remaining case against Bentley has recently been dropped. Ivey was twice elected as lieutenant governor.
In 2010, Ivey defeated incumbent Lt. Gov. Jim Folsom Jr. Folsom was a former governor and the son of a former governor and had been a fixture in state politics for decades until being upset by Ivey.
Before her election as lieutenant governor Ivey was state treasurer.
The major party primaries will be on June 5.
Ivey, evangelist Scott Dawson, State Sen. Bill Hightower, and Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle are all running in the Republican Primary.
