Auburn alumni will now hold four of the state’s top elected offices.
Republican Gov. Kay Ivey won her first full term as governor of Alabama. She has been serving in the role since taking over for former Gov. Robert Bentley when he resigned in April 2017.
Ivey defeated her Democratic opponent Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox with 59.6 percent of the vote according to unofficial election results.
Ivey graduated from Auburn in 1967 with a degree in education. While at Auburn she served as the first woman vice president of the SGA, the only woman in the trumpet section of the marching band and the only Auburn graduate to win five campus-wide elections in four years.
She has served on Auburn’s Board of Trustees as the president of the board since she began serving as governor.
“Auburn changed my life and I’m sure it’s affecting the current students and alumni as well so War Eagle,” Ivey said to The Plainsman Monday at a campaign event.
An Auburn alumnus will also hold the second highest office in Alabama. Republican Will Ainsworth will serve as Alabama’s 31st lieutenant governor.
Ainsworth defeated his Democratic opponent Will Boyd with 61.4 percent of the vote. Ainsworth graduated from Auburn in 1978 with a degree in marketing.
He was elected in 2014 as the representative for District 27 in the Alabama House of Representatives.
Ainsworth will be filling an office that has been vacant since April 2017 when Ivey was thrust into the governor’s office.
Republican Rick Pate ran unopposed and will serve as Alabama’s next agriculture commissioner. Pate’s Republican primary was contested. He defeated long-time Alabama politician Gerald Dial in the Republican primary runoff in July.
Republican Tracie West defeated Democrat Adam Jortner, an associate professor of history at Auburn University, in the race for Alabama State Board of Education District 2, with 67 percent of the vote.
West graduated from Auburn in 1991 with a degree in human sciences.
Republican Cynthia Sanders McCarty ran unopposed in the Republican primary and general election and will serve a second term on Alabama’s State Board of Education representing District 6.
McCarty graduated from Auburn in 1987 with a degree in international trade.
Republican Wayne Reynolds won the District 8 seat for the Alabama State Board of Education. Reynolds earned his doctorate in education from Auburn University in 1980.
Democrat Heather Milam ran for secretary of state. Milam graduated from Auburn in 2002 with a degree in liberal arts. Republican John Merrill received 61.1 percent of the vote to defeat Milam, according to unofficial election results.
Democrat Lee Auman, an Auburn graduate, was defeated by Republican Robert Aderholt in the race for Alabama’s 4th Congressional District.
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Elizabeth, senior in journalism and political science, is the community editor for The Plainsman
