If you think you’re sure the GOP has never hacked an election, then you don’t know the saga of Don Siegelman, Alabama’s last Democratic governor

By Jennifer Cohn
March 16, 2021

In 2002, Alabama’s democratic governor, Don Siegelman ran for reelection against Republican Bob Riley. Siegelman had previously served as attorney general, secretary of state, lieutenant governor, and governor. He was the only person to have held all four of these offices in Alabama. As reported by the New York Times, Siegelman was “a major frustration to Alabama Republicans. The state [was] bright red, but Mr. Siegelman managed to win the governorship in 1998 with 57 percent of the vote.” He was the one Democrat that Alabama Republicans “could never get rid of.”

In March 2001, the Kiplinger Letter posted that,“Governor Don Siegelman is the dark horse candidate who could wreck the Republican Southern strategy and emerge as the Democratic [presidential] nominee IF he wins reelection in 2002.”

Siegelman was passionate about education and hoped to fund improvements in Alabama with a state education lottery. During his first term as governor, he had launched the “Alabama Reading Initiative,” an early education literacy program, which was credited for improving reading scores.