Kay Ivey, the governor of Alabama, was sworn in for a second consecutive term on Monday.
Ivey, 78, took the oath of office in front of a throng of several hundred on the steps of the Alabama Capitol. She will deliver her inauguration speech later this morning.
Ivey is the second female governor of the state and the first Republican woman to hold the office. On Monday, when she takes office, it will be 50 years since Gov. Lurleen Wallace became the state’s first woman governor on January 16, 1967. Wallace has been hailed as one of Ivey’s heroes.
When then-Gov. Robert Bentley abruptly resigned during an impeachment investigation in 2017, Ivey, who had been lieutenant governor, automatically became governor. Ivey secured the position on her own in both 2018 and 2022.
Ivey supported several GOP initiatives during her last tenure. She passed a law in 2019 that makes it illegal to have an abortion at any time during pregnancy, even if the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest. After the U.S. Supreme Court handed back control of the abortion debate to the states, the abortion ban went into effect.
She also approved a bill that addressed the need for a state permit to carry a concealed firearm. In a campaign ad, she talked about the bill while sitting at the governor’s desk and taking a gun out of her purse.
