Former Democrat/Republican and Mayor of Tuskegee Johnny Ford has decided to make a Democratic primary challenge for the Alabama Senate:
Ford says he plans to run next year for the Senate District 28 seat currently held by Democrat Myron Penn of Union Springs.
Ford was elected Tuskegee's first black mayor in 1972. He was defeated in 1996. But two years later, he was elected to the Alabama House as a Democrat. He eventually switched parties and became Alabama's first black Republican legislator since Reconstruction. Ford left the House in 2004 to become mayor of Tuskegee, but he lost his re-election bid last year. Ford says he's pleased to be back in the Democratic Party. He's planning a campaign kickoff Tuesday at the Statehouse in Montgomery.
