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1986 Alabama gubernatorial election

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Field	Value
election_name	1986 Alabama gubernatorial election
country	Alabama
type	presidential
ongoing	no
previous_election	1982 Alabama gubernatorial election
previous_year	1982
next_election	1990 Alabama gubernatorial election
next_year	1990
election_date	November 4, 1986
image1	File:HGuyHunt (cropped).JPG
nominee1	H. Guy Hunt
party1	Republican Party (United States)
popular_vote1	696,203
percentage1	56.4%
image2	Bill Baxley (cropped).png
nominee2	Bill Baxley
party2	Democratic Party (United States)
popular_vote2	537,163
percentage2	43.6%
map_image	1986 Alabama gubernatorial election results map by county.svg
map_size	250px
map_caption	County results
Hunt:
Baxley:
title	Governor
before_election	George Wallace
before_party	Democratic Party (United States)
after_election	H. Guy Hunt
after_party	Republican Party (United States)

Hunt:
Baxley:
The 1986 Alabama gubernatorial election saw the election of Republican H. Guy Hunt over Democrat Bill Baxley. In state politics, this election is largely seen as a realigning election since Hunt was the first Republican to be elected governor in 114 years – the last Republican to be elected was David P. Lewis in 1872 during the Reconstruction era. In March 1986, incumbent George Wallace announced that he would not seek a fifth term as governor, ending an era in Alabama politics.

Though Alabama had supported Republicans in national elections, state and local elections were dominated by Democrats. Therefore many people anticipated that the winner of the Democratic primary would win the election.

Democratic primary

Candidates

Bill Baxley, Lieutenant Governor
Charles Graddick, Attorney General of Alabama
Fob James, former governor
George McMillan, former lieutenant governor and candidate for governor in 1982
Barbara E. O'Neal

Results

Controversy

The Democratic primary brought out a number of candidates. It resulted in a runoff between Lieutenant Governor Bill Baxley and Attorney General Charles Graddick. Graddick, the more conservative of the two Democrats, won the runoff election by a slim margin. Baxley challenged the results, and claimed that Graddick violated Democratic Party rules by encouraging people who voted in the Republican primary to cross over and vote in the Democratic runoff election.

While Republicans in the state have held open primaries for years, the Democrats bar Republicans and Independents from voting in its primary election. This challenge went to the Alabama Supreme Court, which ruled that crossover voting had taken place in large numbers and that the Democratic Party either had to select Baxley as the nominee or hold another runoff election. The party opted to name Baxley as its nominee.

General election and aftermath

Results

The selection of Baxley spurned a negative reaction from Graddick's supporters. As a result, they supported Guy Hunt in the general election, who won with 56 percent of the vote.

This election marked the transformation of politics in Alabama from a state dominated by many perspectives in one party to a two-party state.

References

"1986 Gubernatorial Democratic Primary Election Results - Alabama". US Election Atlas.
"1986 Gubernatorial Democratic Runoff Election Results - Alabama". US Election Atlas.
"HENDERSON v. GRADDICK | 641 F.Supp. 1192 (1986) | pp119211678". Leagle.com.
"802 F2d 1302 Curry v. Baker J & D Graddick | OpenJurist".
(2 August 1986). "Alabama Democrats' Runoff for Governor is Thrown Out". The New York Times.
(2010). "Guide to U.S. Elections". [[CQ Press]].
"Article 404 - Tuscaloosa News - Tuscaloosa, AL".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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