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Kay Ivey
54th Governor of Alabama
Incumbent
Assumed office April 10, 2017
Lieutenant	Will Ainsworth
Preceded by	Robert Bentley
30th Lieutenant Governor of Alabama
In office January 17, 2011 – April 10, 2017
Governor	Robert Bentley
Preceded by	Jim Folsom Jr.
Succeeded by	Will Ainsworth
38th Treasurer of Alabama
In office January 20, 2003 – January 17, 2011
Governor	Bob Riley
Preceded by	Lucy Baxley
Succeeded by	Young Boozer
Personal details
Born	Kay Ellen Ivey (1944-10-15) October 15, 1944 (age 74) Camden, Alabama, U.S.
Political party	Republican (2002–present)
Other political affiliations	Democratic (before 2002)
Residence	Governor's Mansion
Education	Auburn University (BA)
Signature

Kay Ellen Ivey (born October 15, 1944) is an American politician serving as the 54th and current Governor of Alabama since 2017. A member of the Republican Party, she previously was the 38th Alabama State Treasurer from 2003 to 2011 and 30th Lieutenant Governor of Alabama from 2011 to 2017. Ivey became Alabama's second female governor and first female Republican governor upon the resignation of her predecessor, Robert J. Bentley. She won a full term in the 2018 gubernatorial election.

Early life and education

Ivey was born in Camden, Alabama on October 15, 1944 as the only child^[1] to Boadman Nettles Ivey (1913–1997)^[2] and Barbara Ivey (1915–1998).^[3] Her father was an army major in World War II, who later worked with the Gees Bend community as part of a federal program, the Farmers Home Administration.^[1]

Growing up in Camden, Alabama, Ivey worked on her father's farm. She later graduated from Auburn University where she was a member of Alpha Gamma Delta, becoming president of her first year pledge class,^[4] and served in the Student Government Association all four years.^[4] In 1967, she moved to California following a marriage and became a high school teacher for several years.^[4] Following the end of her marriage, Ivey returned to Alabama and landed a position with Merchants National Bank where she launched a school relations program to promote financial literacy.^[4]

Entry into politics

Ivey after being sworn in as State Treasurer in 2003

In 1979, she was appointed by then-Governor Fob James to serve in the state cabinet.^[4] She later served as the law clerk of the Alabama House of Representatives between 1980 and 1982 and served as Assistant Director of the Alabama Development Office between 1982 and 1985.^[5]

In 1982, Ivey ran unsuccessfully for State Auditor as a Democrat.^[6] She was Director of Government Affairs and Communications for the Alabama Commission on Higher Education from 1985 until 1998.^[7]

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.

Lieutenant Governor (2011–2017)

Ivey with Martha Roby, Robert J. Bentley, and Terri Sewell in 2014

Under the Alabama Constitution, Ivey was not eligible to seek re-election to a third term as state treasurer in 2010.^[12] Ivey's name surfaced in press speculation about gubernatorial candidates in 2010.^[13][14]

In 2009, Ivey announced her candidacy for the Republican nomination for governor in the 2010 elections, joining a crowded field of seven Republican candidates.^[15][16] However, in March 2010, Ivey abandoned her run for governor and qualified to run for lieutenant governor.^[17] Ivey ran against State Senator Hank Erwin of Montevallo and schoolteacher Gene Ponder of Baldwin County for the Republican nomination.^[18] In the June 2010 primary election, Ivey won the nomination with 56.6% of the vote, to Erwin's 31.4% and Ponder's 12%.^[19]

In the November 2010 elections, in a Republican sweep of statewide offices, Ivey defeated Democratic incumbent Lieutenant Governor Jim Folsom, Jr., who had sought an unprecedented fourth term. Ivey received 764,112 votes to Folsom's 718,636 votes.^[20]

In 2014, Ivey was challenged in the Republican primary by pastor Stan Cooke of Jefferson County.^[21] Ivey received the support of major lobbying groups, such as the Business Council of Alabama, Alabama Retail Association, Alabama Farmers Federation, and Alabama Forestry Association.^[22] Ivey defeated Cooke in the primary, received 257,588 votes (61.68%) to Cooke's 160,023 votes (38.32%).^[23] In the general election, Ivey faced Democratic nominee James C. Fields, a former state legislator.^[24] In November 2014, Ivey won reelection with 738,090 votes to Fields' 428,007 votes.^[25] This marked the first time a Republican was re-elected lieutenant governor in the state's history.^[26]

Governor of Alabama (2017–present)

Ivey in July 2017

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 was 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]

Economic policy

On April 6, 2018, Ivey signed a bill exempting economic development professionals from registering as lobbyists under the Alabama ethics law. The bill was sponsored by Ken Johnson and would have died if not signed by Ivey over the weekend. Ivey stated the legislation would allow the state "to remain on a level playing field with other states, as we compete for job creating capital investments" and the ability of Alabama to attract highly sought after economic development projects would allow the state to continue experiencing "record-low unemployment".^[46] On April 9, Ivey signed a bill extending the reach of the Simplified Sellers Use Tax to capture purchases from third-party vendors selling products through Amazon and other online marketplaces. In a press release, Ivey said the legislation would "help bring about a competitive balance between brick-and-mortar retailers in Alabama and third-party online sellers, while streamlining the collection of use taxes that are currently due on online transactions."^[47] In a June letter to United States Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, Ivey stated that she was opposed to "any efforts that may harm those companies that employ thousands of Alabamians and contribute billions to our economy" and advocated for Ross to "not recommend to President Trump the levying of trade tariffs on automobiles and automotive parts."^[48] In August, Ivey named Kelly Butler as Alabama acting finance director, saying that Butler would serve until the completion of a search for a permanent director and he would "do an excellent job leading the Alabama Department of Finance during this interim period."^[49]

Education policy

In October 2018, Ivey announced her intent to form an advisory council with the purpose of studying ways to improve science, technology, engineering and math instruction in schools to meet an expectation of strong job demands over the following decade. Ivey said that STEM-related jobs were expected to grow faster than most other forms of employment while paying a median wage roughly twice as large as jobs in other fields and that the Governor's Advisory Council for Excellence in STEM would include educators and representatives of government, business and industry who would give her a comprehensive report on the matter by the end of the year.^[50]

Firearm policy

In May 2018, Ivey signed a memo authorizing Alabama school administrators to have guns at schools if they qualified under the Alabama Sentry Program, and thereby be granted permission to "use lethal force to defend the students, faculty, staff, and visitors of his or her school from the threat of imminent bodily harm or death by an armed intruder." In her announcement on the policy, Ivey stated, "With the unfortunate continuance of occurrence of school violence in our schools across the nation, we simply cannot afford to wait until the next legislative session."^[51] The proposal received criticism from members of both parties, with Republican Mayor of Huntsville Tommy Battle dismissing it as a "one size fits all" plan and Democratic Mayor of Tuscaloosa Walter Maddox suggesting that the program was flawed.^[52]

Abortion and women's rights

In August 2018, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling that blocked the Alabama Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Act, Ivey reflected on her support for the state law while serving as Lieutenant Governor and said that "we should not let this discourage our steadfast commitment to protect the lives of the unborn, even if that means taking this case to the U.S. Supreme Court." She furthered that the ruling "clearly demonstrates why we need conservative justices on the Supreme Court" and expressed her support for the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.^[53]

Health care policy

In March 2018, Ivey announced that Alabama would seek permission to put work or job-training requirements on roughly 75,000 able-bodied adults whose incomes were just a few hundred dollars a month. Ivey asserted that the work requirements would "save taxpayer dollars and will reserve Medicaid services for those that are truly in need of assistance."^[54]
In September, Ivey stated that everyone wanted "high-quality medicine at an affordable cost available to everybody" but that enacting the policy would require figuring out how to pay for it.^[55] On October 1, Ivey announced that the federal government had approved a new care-management program in Alabama to complement and enhance the state’s current system of long-term care services provided to approximately 23,000 Alabama Medicaid recipients, Ivey furthering that the approval was "a significant step in our efforts to transform the delivery of services to Medicaid recipients" and it was her goal "to ensure that all Alabamians receive high-quality health care, no matter their economic status."^[56]

Environmental policy

In October 2018, Ivey appointed Ruby L. Perry and Kevin McKinstry to the Alabama Environmental Management Commission.^[57]

Electoral history

See also

• List of female state governors in the United States


• List of female lieutenant governors in the United States

References

External links

• 
  Governor of Alabama official government site


• 
  Kay Ivey for Lt. Governor official campaign site


• 
  Kay Ivey at Curlie
  


• 
  Biography at the Alabama Department of Archives and History