Uniquely Alabama: Which Alabamians Got Closest To The Presidency

Uniquely Alabama" is an occasional series where Patch tries to find the answers to questions about life in Alabama. Have a question about the Yellowhammer State that needs answering? Send it to michael.seale@patch.com.

Presidents Day is coming up, and as the nation honors the highest office in the land, Alabamians will find that they are part of a state that has never produced a U.S. President. But that is not necessarily unique.

Delaware became the 22nd state to produce a president when Pres. Joe Biden was elected in 2020. And while Alabama has never had a resident elected to the White House, a few Alabamians have held an office that was in line to the presidency and one even earned a party nomination for president.

Alabama has had one resident serve as vice president, although his service was brief. William Rufus King was the 13th U.S. Vice President, serving as the VP for President Franklin Pierce. King served as VP for only six weeks, as he became the first vice president to die in office after a battle with tuberculosis.

Although King did manage to hold the office of vice president, Alabama has had one other person picked as a running mate for a major party. John Sparkman, who served in the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate from 1937 until 1979, was also the Democratic Party's nominee for Vice President in the 1952 presidential election as the running mate for Adlai Stevenson. They were defeated by the Republican ticket of Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon.

Of course, you just cannot talk Alabama political history without bringing up George Wallace. The multi-term governor of Alabama actually came pretty darn close to the presidency, running as an Independent.

Wallace announced his intention to oppose Pres. John F. Kennedy for the 1964 Democratic presidential nomination. After Kennedy was assassinated in November of 1963, Wallace entered the Democratic primaries in 1964 campaigning on his opposition to integration and a tough approach on crime.

In Democratic primaries in Wisconsin, Indiana, and Maryland, Wallace garnered at least a third of the vote. Wallace would later drop out of the race, but that was not the end of his quest for the presidency. He ran as an Independent in the 1968 presidential election with Curtis LeMay as his running mate. Wallace was a controversial figure during a time of intense political unrest in the United States, as the Civil Rights era had divided the nation and Wallace was the face of racial segregation in the country.

Many feared that Wallace would split votes among both major parties, with support from Southern white voters and blue-collar voters in states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan. Wallace had a strategy, however, which was to prevent either major party candidate from winning a majority in the Electoral College. This would throw the election into the House of Representatives, where Wallace would have bargaining power sufficient to determine, or at least strongly influence, the selection of a winner.

Wallace's bid for the presidency came up short in 1968 but had enough momentum to prompt a run as a Democrat in the 1972 primaries. His polling numbers continued to rise rapidly during the beginning of his campaign, but on May 15, 1972, Wallace was shot five times while campaigning in Maryland. He was hit in the abdomen and chest, and one of the bullets lodged in Wallace's spinal column, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of his life.

Although Wallace came up short of the White House, a few other Alabama politicians have held offices that are in line for the presidency.

Rep. William Bankhead served as Speaker of the House from June 4, 1936 –January 3, 1937, and Birmingham native Condoleeza Rice served as Secretary of State under Pres. George W. Bush during Bush's second term.

Alabama's political history is sordid, for sure, but really, being a state that has not produced a president is nothing to be ashamed of. Alabama has produced some of the most influential members of Congress, and even has produced three U.S. Supreme Court justices.

So while Monday is not honoring any Alabamians, please take a little time to recognize the 46 men who have served as president. Whether you agree with their policies or not, they all served their country and contributed to the unique history of the United States.