Wes Allen: A worthy and unique secretary of state
OPINION —
Wes Allen is doing a very good job in his first term as Alabama’s 54th secretary of state.
When he ran for this office, I said he was by far the best qualified person for this important post. This constitutional office is a real working position. It has a myriad of duties with dozens of employees to oversee. The primary reason that I knew he was the most qualified person was the fact that he had been the probate judge of Pike County for almost a decade. Although the secretary of state wears several hats, the administering of elections is one of the more important duties and the highest profile of this job.
I also knew Wes Allen to be a young man of integrity. I have known Wes most of his life. His dad is State Sen. Gerald Allen, who has represented Tuscaloosa and surrounding counties for over 30 years. I was already in the House of Representatives when Gerald came to the House in the mid 1980s. Gerald and I bonded. He gravitated to me because he knew that U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby and I were friends. Gerald was and still is a great admirer and friend of our revered and retired Shelby. They both hail from Tuscaloosa.
While we were in the House of Representatives, Gerald asked me several times to go to lunch with him in Tuscaloosa. He wanted me to meet his son, of whom he was very proud. Finally, I journeyed to the Druid City where we ate at a famous meat and three restaurant on 15th Street. Wes joined us. Wes was everything Gerald said he was, very friendly and delightful. That was 35 years ago. Little did I know that Wes would one day sit in the same House seat that I was in when Wes and I first met, which is House District 89, representing Pike and Dale Counties. Wes was a student at the University of Alabama and a walk-on split end on Gene Stallings’ Alabama football team. Dabo Sweeney was Wes’ position coach.
While probate judge of Pike County, Wes conducted more than a dozen elections without a single error. He was and still is a pillar of the Troy/Pike County Community. I have watched him be a Christian conservative leader in the First Baptist Church in Troy. He was at every one of his children’s ballgames and coached their teams most of the time. While probate judge, he was chosen to be president of the probate Judges Association. In 2018, he was elected overwhelmingly to the legislature. He served successfully alongside his dad for four years. I do not think we have ever seen a father/son duo serve simultaneously in the legislature in state history.
When Wes was elected secretary of state in 2022 and was sworn into office in January 2023, he set another unique precedent in state history. He became only the third person in Alabama history to serve in all three branches of state constitutional government — judicial, legislative and executive – judicial as probate judge, legislative as a member of the House of Representatives 2018 to 2022, and now executive as secretary of state. Only two other men have accomplished this in Alabama government, George C. Wallace and John Purifoy.
Wallace was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives from Barbour County in 1946 at age 26. He served one four-year term and then went back home to be a Circuit Judge. In 1962 he was elected to his first of five terms as governor of Alabama.
John Purifoy had a prolific career in Alabama politics. He was a farmer from Wilcox County. He was born in 1842 and served in the Confederate Army. He was elected probate judge of Wilcox County in 1880 and later was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives. He was elected secretary of state from the legislature, like Wes. He served as secretary of state from 1915 to 1919. He was Alabama’s state treasurer 1911 to 1915 and state auditor from 1892 to 1896.
Wes Allen is not only a worthy secretary of state, he has a unique place in Alabama political history.
See you next week.
Steve Flowers’ weekly column appears in more than 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years in the state legislature. steve@steveflowers.us.
