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A spirit that is not afraid

Steve Marshall wins first full term as attorney general

<p>Gov. Robert Bentley shakes hands with new Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, after signing his appointment letter at the state Capitol in Montgomery, Friday, Feb. 10, 2017. Marshall has served as the district attorney in Marshall County in north Alabama, appointed to the post in 2001 and re-elected three times. He is a past president of the Alabama District Attorney's Association and currently serves as commission chairman of the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center.(Governor's Office, Jamie Martin) </p>

Gov. Robert Bentley shakes hands with new Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, after signing his appointment letter at the state Capitol in Montgomery, Friday, Feb. 10, 2017. Marshall has served as the district attorney in Marshall County in north Alabama, appointed to the post in 2001 and re-elected three times. He is a past president of the Alabama District Attorney's Association and currently serves as commission chairman of the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center.(Governor's Office, Jamie Martin)

Steve Marshall has defeated Joseph Siegelman to win the attorney general’s office.

Marshall is sitting at 64.8 percent of the vote with 22 of 67 counties reporting at time of publishing, according to the incomplete, unofficial results on the Secretary of State’s website.

“The one thing that I know over the last four months is that the people of Alabama have stood up for me,” Marshall said in his victory speech. “They have stood up for Faith [his daughter]. They have supported us. They have prayed for us. They have lifted us up. Tonight my obligation is to give back to the people of Alabama and stand with them. That is exactly what we are going to do.” 

Marshall was appointed to serve as Alabama’s attorney general in February 2017 by former Gov. Robert Bentley after Luther Strange vacated the office to serve in the U.S. Senate when Jeff Sessions was appointed to serve as the U.S. Attorney General. 

“I walked into the office in February of 2017 with really two goals,” Marshall said, “One of which was to make sure that we lead an office of attorneys, that I’m extremely proud of, to make sure that the people of Alabama knew they truly were the people’s law firm.”

Before serving as Alabama’s attorney general, Marshall was appointed to serve as Marshall County’s district attorney in 2001. He was then elected without opposition in 2004, 2010 and 2016, according to his campaign website. 

“There were some that were critics,” Marshall said. “They always called me the appointed attorney general. They can’t do that anymore.”

This is Democrat Siegelman’s first run for public office, and, according to the Secretary of State’s website, he currently holds an incomplete, unofficial 35 percent of the vote. 

He is the son of former Governor Don Siegelman and currently works as a managing partner at The Cochran Firm's Birmingham office, according to his campaign website. 

One of the issues Marshall focused on during his campaign was the opioid epidemic. During his year in office, Marshall was appointed co-chair of Gov. Kay Ivey’s Alabama Opioid Overdose and Addiction Council. 

Marshall said he got involved in the opioid epidemic after reading Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, in which King challenged people to stand up for those facing injustices. He said he knew it was his role to get involved and be the voice for those affected by the opioid epidemic. 

“It is a scourge in this state as it is in our country, and we had no plan,” Marshall said. “We became the voice of the people who needed help.”

That council recommended stronger penalties for the trafficking of fentanyl, an opioid more potent than heroin, and increased funding for treatment and prevention programs. They also recommended improved data gathering so resources can be better distributed, according to the Montgomery Advertiser.

Marshall also discussed immigration during his campaign. During his year in office, he supported President Trump’s travel ban, which placed travel restrictions on citizens from nations that pose security risks, such as North Korea and Iran, and joined Trump’s efforts to put an end to sanctuary cities, according to his campaign website. 

Marshall also launched his “Initiative on Violent Crime.” The initiative’s slogan is “Reclaim. Restore. Revive.” Marshall’s goal with the initiative is to reclaim neighborhoods from violent crime, restore the rule of law and revive communities, according to his campaign website. 

“We also saw that we had a violent crime rate that was rising, but yet many times victims didn’t feel like they had a voice,” Marshall said. “We stood up and were the voice for those victims.”

Marshall achieved these goals by establishing strategic partnerships with federal, state and local law enforcement, renewing investments in crime-fighting resources and increasing training opportunities for those on the front lines, according to his campaign website.

He said he recognizes that not everyone voted for him, but he is now every Alabamian's attorney general and plans to work for every part of Alabama even if they didn't vote for him.

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“What this election means is the people of Alabama now trust me,” Marshall said. “I am grateful for that belief and what it is we’ve done, but I also know it is incumbent upon me to continue that going forward.” 


Elizabeth Hurley | Community Editor

Elizabeth, senior in journalism and political science, is the community editor for The Plainsman

@lizhurley37

community@theplainsman.com


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