Steve Marshall to seek re-election as Alabama Attorney General

Montgomery Advertiser (AL)

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said Thursday he will seek a second term in office.

In a brief announcement that often invoked apocalyptic images, Marshall said he would focus on enforcement issues and social conservative causes that have dominated his time as attorney general.

"I promise you this the wave of the past will not be the wave of the future," he said. "There will be law and order in the state of Alabama, so long as I am the state’s chief law enforcement officer."

Marshall was appointed Alabama attorney general by then-Gov. Robert Bentley in 2017, to succeed Luther Strange, who had been appointed U.S. senator.

The Alabama Attorney General said "crime was at a two-decade high" when he took office. The overall violent crime rate in Alabama has increased since 2007, when it was at 428 per 100,000. There were 517.9 per 100,000 in 2016, according to Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center reports. But the overall violent crime rate remains lower than it was in the mid-1990s: there were 575.3 violent crimes per 100,000 Alabama residents in 1996.

As attorney general, Marshall has pursued law and order and social conservative issues, joining lawsuits to limit abortion rights, promote gun access, and prevent the Equal Rights Amendment from taking effect. He has also pursued a so-far unsuccessful attempt to exclude undocumented immigrants from the Census, a move that would benefit Alabama, a low immigration state, at the expense of larger states such as California and Texas. Marshall grouped the latter two instances as reactions to President Joe Biden, though he launched those lawsuits when President Donald Trump was in office.

The attorney general also opposed the medical cannabis program approved by the Alabama Legislature and signed by Gov. Kay Ivey last month. Marshall has also sued Alabama cities that have removed Confederate monument, erected as symbols of white supremacy.

The attorney general serves as chair of the Rule of Law Defense Fund (RLDF) of the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA). The RLDF sent out robocalls ahead of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol encouraging people to attend a rally for then-President Donald Trump, who falsely accused Democrats of stealing the November presidential election, and was listed as a sponsor of the event.

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Marshall said after the riot that the RLDF's involvement had not been authorized and that he planned an investigation. A message seeking an update on the investigation was left with RAGA on Thursday.

Marshall faced several Republican challengers in the 2018 Republican primary, including former Attorney General Troy King, but managed to win the nomination. He easily won a term in his own right that November.

Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Brian Lyman at 334-240-0185 or [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Steve Marshall to seek re-election as Alabama Attorney General

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