Bill Baxley - Runs For Governor

Runs For Governor

In 1978, Baxley, then the sitting Attorney General, ran to succeed the term-limited George Wallace as governor of Alabama. Baxley lost the Democratic primary to political newcomer Fob James, who went on to defeat Republican nominee Guy Hunt of Cullman. Baxley's campaign leaned heavily on the fact that James been a Republican and returned to the Democratic Party to make his gubernatorial race. Baxley was endorsed by University of Alabama football coach Bear Bryant, who did not want to see James, a graduate of archrival Auburn University, in the governor's mansion.

Guy Hunt and questions of Democratic party loyalty both reappeared in another Baxley campaign eight years later. In 1986, the Democratic primary for the gubernatorial race saw then Attorney General Charles Graddick of Mobile in a runoff with Baxley, then the lieutenant governor. Graddick won by a few thousand votes, but Baxley appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court, which ruled Graddick had violated primary regulations by encouraging Republicans to “cross over” and vote as Democrats. The court told the Democratic Party to hold another election or to select Baxley as the nominee. The party hence confirmed Baxley as its candidate.

Accustomed to a one-party state in which the open primary for the Democratic nomination was considered tantamount to election, many Alabama voters took out their frustrations by voting against Baxley and for Guy Hunt, the GOP nominee. Hunt won the election by a large margin, giving Alabama its first Republican governor since Reconstruction.