Republican Kay Ivey wins 2nd full term as Alabama governor

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey won a second full term Tuesday against Democrat Yolanda Flowers, the first Black woman to win a major party’s gubernatorial nomination in the state, after surviving both a health scare and multiple Republican challengers in the primary.

While Flowers’ candidacy was an interesting historical footnote, it posed no real 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.

Libertarian Jimmy Blake, a former Birmingham City Council member, also was on the ballot.

Ivey, who turned 78 in October, avoided a runoff in the spring despite facing a slate that included 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.

Following 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 refused to say whether she underwent any medical treatment.

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