I have to say, I never thought Kay Ivey would be considered one of the saner Republicans, but here we are.
She's always come across as a bland, Generic R to me. She's in the same wing of the party as Richard Shelby, and is of the same generation as him. And like Shelby, Ivey is a former conservative Democrat.
Like (probably) a million other Alabama's voters. After all - it's not an coincidence, that in the past many Alabama's Democrats spoke of their party as "our (Alabama's) conservative Democratic party..."
That's true. Aside from Ivey and Shelby, both of Louisiana's Senators, Kennedy and Cassidy, are also former conservative Democrats. It will be an end of an era when all of the party switchers of the Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms model are no longer in office.
It’s still somewhat of a mystery to me that they welcomed Shelby with such open arms into the GOP in 1994. Granted, the state was more competitive back then, but especially with hindsight, they could have done a lot better than Shelby in that seat. He’s certainly no Sessions in that he’s always had sincere conservative convictions even as a Democrat (his calculated voting record prior to his switch demonstrates that relatively well, and he’s always gotten along well with his Democratic colleagues).
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