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 County results James: 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% >90% Hunt: 50–60% 60–70% | |||||||||||||||||
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| Elections in Alabama |
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 Government |
The 1978 Alabama gubernatorial election took place on November 7, 1978, to elect the governor of Alabama. Fob James, a businessman who had switched from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party and campaigned as a "born-again Democrat", won the Democratic primary in an upset over Attorney General Bill Baxley. He went on to defeat Guy Hunt in a landslide in the general election. Incumbent Democrat George Wallace was term limited and could not seek a third consecutive term; he later successfully ran again in 1982.
Hunt was the first Republican to win Cullman County since Reconstruction.