Walt Maddox | |
---|---|
![]() Maddox in 2011 | |
36th Mayor of Tuscaloosa | |
Assumed office October 3, 2005 | |
Preceded by | Al DuPont |
Member of the Tuscaloosa City Council from the 6th district | |
In office October 1,2001 –October 3,2005 | |
Preceded by | Clell Hobson |
Succeeded by | Bob Lundell |
Field Director of the Alabama Education Association | |
In office 1996 –2001 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Walter Thomas Maddox December 27,1972 Tuscaloosa,Alabama,U.S. |
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse(s) | Robin Maddox (m. 1998;div. 2008)Stephanie Roberts (m. 2010) |
Children | 2 |
Education | University of Alabama at Birmingham (BA, MPA) |
Website | Official website |
Walter Thomas Maddox (born December 27, 1972) is an American politician who has served as the 36th mayor of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, since 2005. From 2001 to 2005, he served on the Tuscaloosa City Council and as executive director of personnel for Tuscaloosa City Schools. Maddox was a field director for the Alabama Education Association from 1996 to 2001. [1]
Maddox was elected mayor of Tuscaloosa and has been reelected four times. [2] In 2018, he was the Democratic nominee for governor of Alabama, losing to incumbent Republican Kay Ivey. [3]
Maddox was born and raised in Tuscaloosa, attended the Tuscaloosa City Schools, and graduated from Central High School in 1991. [1] He attended the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he received a bachelor's degree in political science and a Master's in Public Administration.
From 1996 to 2001, Maddox served as a field director for the Alabama Education Association. In 2001, he was appointed executive director of personnel for Tuscaloosa City Schools, serving until he was elected mayor. [1] [4] On August 28, 2001, Maddox was elected to the Tuscaloosa City Council, defeating incumbent Clell Hobson, 61% to 39%. He ran on a platform of education reform and crime reduction. [5]
In 2005, longtime Tuscaloosa mayor Al DuPont retired. Maddox was an underdog against former city councilman Sammy Watson. Maddox came in second place in the initial round of voting, receiving 31.1% to Watson's 38%. [6] This forced a runoff on September 13, which Maddox won with 54% of the vote to Watson's 46%. [7] Maddox was inaugurated on October 3 in front of Tuscaloosa City Hall. [8]
On August 25, 2009, Maddox was reelected without opposition. [9]
Maddox was reelected again without opposition on August 27, 2013. [10] On November 4, he was sworn in for his third term as mayor. Since his first inauguration, he has led initiatives to increase economic development, improve customer service with the implementation of Tuscaloosa 311 and provide quality pre-K education for academically at-risk four-year-olds.
For the first time since 2005, Maddox faced a challenger in the 2017 mayoral election. His opponent was the founder of the Urban Progressive Party, Stepfon Lewis. [11] Maddox defeated Lewis [12] with 89% of the vote to Lewis's 11%. He was sworn into his fourth term on May 22, 2017.
On March 2, 2021, Maddox was elected to his fifth term with 56% of the vote, defeating University of Alabama professor Serena Fortenberry and former University of Alabama football player Martin Houston. [13]
On April 27, 2011, a large EF4 tornado struck Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, killing 44 people in Tuscaloosa County and inflicting $927 million in damage to the city. The tornado, part of the 2011 Super Outbreak, was the second significant tornado to affect the city that month, as an EF3 tornado struck a similar part of the city on April 15. On April 29, Maddox toured the April 27 tornado damage with public officials including President Barack Obama and Governor Robert J. Bentley. [14]
The tornado destroyed 12% of the city; it severely damaged or destroyed approximately 5,300 homes and businesses. Maddox was widely praised for his leadership in the aftermath of the storm. [15] [16] [17] The Wall Street Journal described the Tuscaloosa disaster response as an attempt to "courageously create a showpiece" of "unique neighborhoods that are healthy, safe, accessible, connected, and sustainable." [18]
Maddox is a fellow with the Program on Crisis Leadership at the Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. [19] He was promoted to senior fellow in the program in August 2019, and will partner with the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative's executive education courses to discuss lessons he learned during Tuscaloosa's tornado recovery efforts. [20]
On October 5, 2017, Maddox announced his plans to run for governor of Alabama, saying Republican leadership had failed the state, which "still ranks near the bottom in every quality-of-life indicator from education to healthcare." [21] He won the June 5 primary with 54.6% of the vote, defeating former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb. In November he lost to Republican incumbent governor Kay Ivey.
Maddox ran as a "pro-life," pro-Second Amendment candidate. [22]
On December 27, 1998, [31] Maddox married Robin Maddox, a realtor. After having a daughter [32] together, they divorced in 2008. [31] On June 26, 2010, Maddox married Stephanie Nicole Roberts. [33] Their son was born in 2013. [32]
Tuscaloosa County is a county in the northwest-central portion of the U.S. state of Alabama and is the center of commerce, education, industry, health care, and entertainment for the region.
Tuscaloosa is a city in and the county seat of Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal and Piedmont plains meet. Alabama's fifth-most populous city, the population was 99,600 at the 2020 census, and was estimated to be 110,602 in 2022. It was known as Tuskaloosa until the early 20th century. It is also known as "the Druid City" because of the numerous water oaks planted in its downtown streets since the 1840s.
WBMA-LD is a low-power television station in Birmingham, Alabama, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate WABM and Homewood-licensed CW affiliate WTTO ; Sinclair also operates Bessemer-licensed WDBB, which serves as a full satellite station of WTTO, under a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Sinclair partner company Cunningham Broadcasting. However, Sinclair effectively owns WDBB as the majority of Cunningham's stock is owned by the family of deceased group founder Julian Smith.
WIAT is a television station in Birmingham, Alabama, United States, affiliated with CBS and owned by Nexstar Media Group. The station's studios are on Golden Crest Drive atop Red Mountain, where its tower is also located.
Larry Paul Langford was an American politician who had a one-term tenure as the mayor of the city of Birmingham, Alabama. At the time of his death, Langford was hospitalized on compassionate release from serving a 15-year federal prison sentence.
James Max Spann Jr. is a television meteorologist and podcast host based in Birmingham, Alabama. He currently works for WBMA-LD, Birmingham's ABC affiliate. Spann has worked in the field since 1978. He is also the host of the podcast WeatherBrains which he started in 2006.
William A. Bell Sr. is an American politician who served as the 33rd mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, from 2010 to 2017. He had previously held the office on an interim basis in 1999. Prior to that, he had served several terms on the Birmingham City Council. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
The 2008 United States House of Representatives elections in Alabama were held on November 4, 2008, to determine the representation of the state of Alabama in the United States House of Representatives, coinciding with the presidential and senatorial elections. Representatives are elected for two-year terms; those elected served in the 111th Congress from January 3, 2009, until January 3, 2011.
Kay Ellen Ivey is an American politician who is the 54th governor of Alabama, serving since 2017. Originally a conservative Southern Democrat, Ivey became a member of the Republican Party in 2002. She was the 38th Alabama state treasurer from 2003 to 2011 and the 30th lieutenant governor of Alabama from 2011 to 2017.
The 2016 United States Senate election in Alabama was held on November 8, 2016, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Alabama, concurrently with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.
The 2017 United States elections were held, in large part, on Tuesday, November 7, 2017. This off-year election featured gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey, as well as state legislative elections in both houses of the New Jersey Legislature and in the Virginia House of Delegates. Numerous citizen initiatives, mayoral races, and a variety of other local elections also occurred. Special elections were also held for one seat of the U.S. Senate, representing Alabama, and six seats of the U.S. House of Representatives. The Democrats picked up the governorship in New Jersey and the Alabama Senate seat that was up for a special election. The governorship in Virginia and the six House seats that were up for special elections did not change party hands.
The 2020 United States Senate election in Alabama was held on November 3, 2020, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Alabama, concurrently with the 2020 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states, elections to the United States House of Representatives, and various state and local elections.
The 2018 Alabama gubernatorial election took place on November 6, 2018, to elect the governor of Alabama. Incumbent Governor Kay Ivey (R), who took office on April 10, 2017 upon the resignation of Robert Bentley (R) ran for election to a full term and won over Tuscaloosa mayor Walt Maddox. Ivey was sworn in for her first full term on January 14, 2019. This was the first time since 1966 that a woman was elected Governor of Alabama.
Phillip W. Williams Jr. is an American politician, radio show host and attorney from the state of Alabama. A member of the Republican Party, Williams served in the Alabama Senate from 2010 until 2018, representing the 10th district, encompassing Etowah County and parts of Cherokee County. Since leaving the state legislature, Williams has served as a policy director for the Alabama Policy Institute and hosts a conservative radio program, Rightside Radio.
The 2017 United States Senate special election in Alabama took place on December 12, 2017, in order for the winner to serve the remainder of the U.S. Senate term ending on January 3, 2021. A vacancy arose from Senator Jeff Sessions's February 8, 2017, resignation from the Senate. Sessions resigned his post to serve as the 84th U.S. attorney general. On February 9, 2017, Governor Robert J. Bentley appointed Luther Strange, the attorney general of Alabama, to fill the vacancy until a special election could take place. The special election was scheduled for December 12, 2017.
Randall Woodfin is an American lawyer and politician who is the 34th and current mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, after winning the October 3, 2017, runoff against incumbent William A. Bell. He previously served as president of the Birmingham City School Board (2013–2015) and as a city attorney of Birmingham from 2009–2017.
The 2017 mayoral election in Birmingham, Alabama, took place on August 22, 2017, alongside municipal races for the Birmingham City Council and Birmingham Board of Education. In a field of twelve candidates, Randall Woodfin came in first ahead of incumbent William A. Bell. As neither reached the 50 percent threshold, a runoff election was held on October 3, 2017, when Woodfin was elected with over 58 percent of the vote.
The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached the U.S. state of Alabama in March 2020. As of January 10, 2022, the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADHP) reported nearly a million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 16,630 confirmed deaths. At 330 deaths per 100,000 Alabama has the highest death rate in the US along with Mississippi.
The 2022 Alabama gubernatorial election took place on November 8, 2022, to elect the governor of Alabama. Incumbent Governor Kay Ivey took office on April 10, 2017, upon the resignation of Robert J. Bentley (R) and won a full term in 2018. In 2022, she won her bid for a second full term in a landslide.
The 2021 Birmingham mayoral election was held on August 24, 2021, to elect the mayor of Birmingham, Alabama. Incumbent Democratic mayor Randall Woodfin was re-elected to a second term.
{{cite web}}
: |author=
has generic name (help){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)