Walt Maddox has my respect and gives Democrats a chance

Walt Maddox represents the best chance Democrats have to win the Alabama governor’s race in more than a decade and a half. With all due respect to the rest of the field, this one shouldn’t be a close primary race to oppose the GOP nominee–likely current Gov. Kay Ivey.

The Democratic primary is basically a two-candidate race at this point. Maddox and former Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court Sue Bell Cobb. Name identification matters in politics, and Cobb has it. She’s a perfectly reasonable political option. The choice for Alabama’s Democratic primary voters is whether they want to continue their past or invest in their future.

For what it’s worth, I’m a conservative who doesn’t support the Democrats’ regularly recycled agenda. I can whip through the arguments for Medicaid expansion, government lottery, infrastructure spending, and tax hikes as quickly as any Democratic candidate. I’d hoped Maddox would be materially different from a policy perspective. So far, he isn’t. For that matter, neither is Cobb.

Maddox does bring an energy that’s been lacking from the state’s Democratic Party.

I’ve previously written that weak Democratic candidates make for even weaker Republicans. It’s still true. Alabama’s GOP can fumble as many times as it likes because it isn’t really worried about any Democrat picking up the ball. Senator Doug Jones’s surprise victory raised some eyebrows, but Republicans view that as political indigestion addressed by better candidates in 2020.

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