Kay Ivey's political career has been years in the making, from high school leadership roles with Alabama Girls State to one of the state's highest offices several decades later.
Her career has been a steady climb to her current position as lieutenant governor. Though typically not a front-and-center role, and one that has lost power over the past few decades, responsibilities include presiding over debate in the state Senate and, if necessary, stepping in to fill the governor's seat.
Rumors circulated in fall 2015 of an affair between Gov. Robert Bentley and Rebekah Caldwell Mason, his senior political adviser. The allegations returned with full force last week, prompting Bentley to apologize but at the same time deny a "physical affair."
Bentley has said that he does not plan to leave office but several elected officials have called for his removal. The consequence of that, so far mentioned without much detail, would be Ivey taking over as governor, according to the state's line of succession.
Representatives from Ivey's office declined to comment for this article.
In campaign literature compiled by an exploratory committee in 2009, Ivey emphasized transparency, efficiency and the importance of Alabama industry as the cornerstones of her public service.
Political beginnings
Ivey was born Oct. 15, 1944, and grew up in Camden, Ala. - then a town of fewer than 1,000 in Wilcox County where her grandparents operated a cattle farm and a mercantile company.
Ivey's first brush with politics came in 1962. She represented Wilcox County High School at Alabama Girls State, where she served as lieutenant governor. She went on to represent the state in Washington, D.C., where she met Sen. Margaret Chase Smith - the first woman to serve in both Houses of U.S. Congress.
She attended Auburn University, where she was president of her Alpha Gamma Delta pledge class and served in the Student Government Association all four years. She encountered the state's politically powerful while coordinating on-campus efforts for Lurleen Wallace's gubernatorial campaign.
Ivey said this in 2009: "During her campaign visits to Auburn, I had time to discuss topics and interests with her. She even invited me to join her staff and cabinet upon my graduation in May 1967. Hindsight is 20-20! I should have accepted and joined her administration, but instead I chose to get married in August 1967."
Ivey moved with her then-husband to California, where she taught high school for several years. Upon returning to Alabama, she landed a position with Merchants National Bank launching a school relations program to promote financial literacy.
Her debut on the state political stage was relatively quiet, when in 1979 she left the bank to serve in Gov. Fob James' cabinet. She went on to serve as director of government affairs and communications for the Alabama Commission on Higher Education before running for state treasurer in 2002.
"For 33 years I've been teaching at Alabama Girls State that qualified folks need to offer themselves for public office. Now I'm going to practice what I've been preaching," Ivey told the AP.
Ivey was re-elected in 2006. She served as Romney's Alabama campaign chairwoman during the 2008 presidential race, and last fall she endorsed Jeb Bush, who has since dropped out.
Stepping onto a bigger stage
In May 2009, with term limits precluding another run for treasurer, Ivey announced that she would seek the Republican nomination for governor in 2010 - "It is the only office I intend to seek in 2010," she told a reporter. She was the fourth to join a slate of candidates that included Bentley.
Kay Ivey listens to speakers at a public hearing on the PACT program, the state's prepaid college tuition program, in May 2009. (Birmingham News file photo | Bernard Troncale)
She rebuffed criticism of her management of the state's prepaid college tuition program, or PACT, during her tenure as treasurer, saying few people could have foreseen the economic collapse of U.S. financial markets.
"After the economic downturn caused a negative impact on the PACT program, I purposefully turned my energies ... to finding solutions for students rather than being just another politician," Ivey said in an email to supporters at the time.
Created by the legislature in 1989, PACT allowed parents to pay college tuition years in advance, either in a lump sum or regular payments. The program began struggling in 2000, when increased tuition and attendance were coupled with stock market downturns.
In 2003, Ivey said the PACT program, which allowed parents to pay into an account that the state then invested, remained one of the soundest college savings plans in the country.
"Only market conditions caused this, not staff or the board. It's due solely to the economic conditions of the country," Ivey said.
Regardless of her role in PACT's collapse, the program's failures have haunted Ivey's political career for years, most often in attacks from opponents in election years.
The program stopped selling new contracts in 2008. In 2010, the Legislature passed a plan to help save PACT, pledging a total of $548 million over 13 years starting in 2015.
But after Boozer took office in January 2011, he determined the legislative bailout would not be nearly enough to sustain PACT. In May 2011, the PACT board approved the settlement of the class-action lawsuit filed by contract holders.
The settlement was appealed, and the Legislature had to approve a change in the law before it finally took effect in 2013. Young Boozer, who succeeded Ivey as state treasurer, said a program that was once in a "financial death spiral" is now stable.
The 2009 announcement of Ivey's gubernatorial bid was delayed by ongoing efforts to address the PACT funding crisis, which she said was being stabilized with help from the Retirement Systems of Alabama.
"I have faced this PACT challenge head on in the only way I know how -- with honesty, with transparency, with focus and without heated passion and political gamesmanship," she wrote. "I have been tested. I have been challenged. How one handles and responds to pressure during a challenge tells a lot."
Nearly a year later, she dropped out of the governor's race and declared her intention to instead run for lieutenant governor. She trailed fellow Republicans in the polls and in campaign funding.
Saying the change offered her the best chance to provide "efficient leadership" for the state, she set her sights on unseating incumbent Jim Folsom Jr. and becoming the second woman to hold the office.
During the campaign, she accused Folsom of presiding over the most corrupt and gridlocked Senate in Alabama history and creating the financially troubled PACT program.
He fired back by saying PACT lost $480 million in value under Ivey's watch, leading to a legislative rescue that he helped lead.
Though lagging behind Folsom in campaign donations and losing out on several major endorsements from business groups, Ivey defeated Folsom in November 2010. Her victory was part of a Republican takeover of the state's highest offices.
Steve Flowers, a political commentator and former state representative, interviewed Ivey on the eve of the 2012 legislative session. She expressed contentment with her first year presiding over the Senate and optimism about the future.
"Coming into the 2011 session was a challenging and very sobering experience because of the unknown and the uncertainty," Ivey said in the interview. "So many of us were first-timers, brand new."
But that apprehension quickly gave way to confidence and optimism, she said, as it became clear that legislators had come to Montgomery devoted to "causes greater than themselves" with no more petty politics and personal agendas.
She said weekly meetings with the majority and minority leadership fostered teamwork and effective communication.
Ivey outlined to the Associated Press what she saw as the biggest successes of her first term: working with Republican legislators to reduce the size of state government, bringing down unemployment and passing budgets that haven't required midyear cuts due to overspending.
Ivey's second term: 'There is more to do'
In June 2013, she kicked off her campaign for a second term with an announcement on the Capitol steps. Since she began presiding over the Senate, she said, the Legislature had worked with Bentley to downsize government, pass balanced budgets and sustain essential state services.
"Alabama is in better shape now than it was then, and yet there is more to do," she said at the time.
She defeated GOP challenger Stan Cooke in the primary, despite his attacks on her performance and criticism of what he saw as a largely passive role in state government.
Ivey countered by saying Bentley had entrusted her with important duties, including leading the commission he appointed in 2011 to find ways to streamline state government and reduce expenses, as well as appointing her to the advisory committee that decides which road and bridge projects should share in the $1 billion in the Alabama Transportation Rehabilitation and Improvement Program.
She went on to defeat Democrat James Fields in November 2014.
Alabama Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey presides over the Senate Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2016, during the first day of regular legislative session at the Statehouse in Montgomery, Ala. (Julie Bennett/jbennett@al.com)
Now, with less than two years left in her second term, Ivey's name has arisen as commentators and legislators have discussed the rocky remainder of Bentley's term. Many were reticent to speculate about what will happen in the coming weeks and months.
Flowers says that he does not believe Bentley will resign, but, if for some reason Ivey had to step in, she is qualified to fill the position.
Her resume is a laundry list of governmental and civic responsibilities, from teaching schoolchildren about managing finances to presiding over the Senate.
"She's had a varied career," Flowers said. "She's had a career that's been considered a good background for being governor. Her qualifications stack up as well as anybody."
Whether Bentley finishes out his term or if Ivey were to do so may not have much impact, Flowers said. He expects that soon after the presidential race is over in November, eyes will turn to 2018 state elections.
"The whole focus is going to be 'Who's the next governor?" he said.
Edited on March 30 to clarify that Margaret Chase Smith was the first woman to serve in both Houses of Congress