Editing Alabama (section)

==== State elections ====
With the disfranchisement of Blacks in 1901, the state became part of the "[[Solid South]]", a system in which the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] operated as effectively the only viable political party in every Southern state. For nearly a hundred years local and state elections in Alabama were decided in the Democratic Party [[Partisan primary|primary]], with generally only token [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] challengers running in the general election. Since the mid- to late 20th century, however, white conservatives started shifting to the Republican Party. In Alabama, majority-white districts are now expected to regularly elect Republican candidates to federal, state and local office.

Members of the nine seats on the [[Supreme Court of Alabama]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2009/05/sue_bell_cobb_considering_runn.html |title=Sue Bell Cobb considering running for governor |website=The Birmingham News |date=May 2, 2009 |access-date=August 7, 2009 |archive-date=May 6, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090506035723/http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2009/05/sue_bell_cobb_considering_runn.html |url-status=live}}</ref> and all ten seats on the state appellate courts are elected to office. Until 1994, no Republicans held any of the court seats. In that general election, the then-incumbent chief justice, [[Ernest C. Hornsby]], refused to leave office after losing the election by approximately 3,000 votes to Republican [[Perry Hooper Sr.|Perry O. Hooper Sr.]]<ref>{{Cite web|date=April 26, 2016|title=Chief Justice Perry Hooper remembered as GOP pioneer|url=https://www.al.com/news/2016/04/alabama_chief_justice_perry_ho.html|access-date=April 2, 2021|website=al|archive-date=June 13, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210613164025/https://www.al.com/news/2016/04/alabama_chief_justice_perry_ho.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Hornsby sued Alabama and defiantly remained in office for nearly a year before finally giving up the seat after losing in court.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Courting Votes in Alabama|last=Johnson|first=Winthrop|publisher=Prescott Press, Inc.|year=1999|isbn=0-933451-41-5|location=Lafayette, Louisiana|page=250}}</ref> The Democrats lost the last of the nineteen court seats in August 2011 with the resignation of the last Democrat on the bench.

In the early 21st century, Republicans hold all seven of the statewide elected executive branch offices. Republicans hold six of the eight elected seats on the [[Alabama State Board of Education]]. In 2010, Republicans took large majorities of both chambers of the state legislature, giving them control of that body for the first time in 136 years. The last remaining statewide Democrat, who served on the Alabama Public Service Commission, was defeated in 2012.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.psc.state.al.us/commissioners.htm |title=Commissioners |publisher=Psc.state.al.us |access-date=August 7, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090718210525/http://www.psc.state.al.us/commissioners.htm |archive-date=July 18, 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Special |url=http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2008/11/lucy_baxley_wins_alabama_publi.html |title=Lucy Baxley wins Alabama Public Service Commission presidency, but recount possible |publisher=Birmingham News via al.com |date=November 5, 2008 |access-date=August 7, 2009 |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20090802212747/http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2008/11/lucy_baxley_wins_alabama_publi.html |archive-date=August 2, 2009 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Jeff Amy |url=http://blog.al.com/live/2010/11/public_service_commission.html |title=Public Service Commission: Twinkle Cavanaugh, Terry Dunn join GOP sweep |publisher=al.com |access-date=June 1, 2011 |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20120306232802/http://blog.al.com/live/2010/11/public_service_commission.html |archive-date=March 6, 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Only three Republican lieutenant governors have been elected since the end of Reconstruction, when Republicans generally represented Reconstruction government, including the newly emancipated freedmen who had gained the franchise. The three GOP lieutenant governors are [[Steve Windom]] (1999–2003), [[Kay Ivey]] (2011–2017), and [[Will Ainsworth]] (2019–present).