Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen walks toward a podium during inauguration ceremonies at the Alabama State Capitol on Monday, Jan. 16, 2023 in Montgomery, Alabama. Allen announced in a news release he will run for Lt. Governor. (Stew Milne/Alabama Reflector)
Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen said Tuesday he plans to seek the Republican Party’s nomination for lieutenant governor.
Allen, serving his first term as secretary of state, said in a statement that he was “incredibly proud” of the work he had done in the office.
“The Lt. Governor seat will be an open seat in the 2026 election and I believe it is time for me to take my record of conservative, effective leadership to that office,” the statement said.
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Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth, widely expected to run for governor, has served two terms and is constitutionally barred from seeking a third consecutive one.
The lieutenant governor presides over the Alabama Senate and breaks ties in the chamber; has some appointment powers and becomes governor should that office become vacant. The office used to have significant power over committee appointments and the flow of legislation in the Senate, but those powers were given to the Senate President Pro Tem after a weeks-long standoff between then-Lt. Gov. Steve Windom, a Republican, and the Democratic-controlled Senate in 1999.
Allen served as the probate judge for Pike County for 10 years before winning election to the Alabama House of Representatives in 2018. He was elected Secretary of State in 2022.
Allen garnered attention in 2023 when he rescinded the state from the Electronic Registration Information Center system in which member states shared information with one another about people on their voter rolls.
The Secretary of State’s Office created the Alabama Voter Integrity Database that sought to recreate the information that Alabama received as part of the ERIC system. Observers said AVID largely duplicated the functions of ERIC.
Allen had previously made an inaccurate claim on a conservative radio talk show that ERIC was launched with funding from George Soros, the liberal billionaire and frequent target of the right.
The secretary of state is the lead defendant in Allen v. Milligan, the federal court case that led to the redrawing of Alabama’s congressional map in 2023. The bulk of the arguments for the state were handled by the Alabama Attorney General’s Office.
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Author: Ralph Chapoco