From USA TODAY Network and wire reports Alabama Montgomery: Gov. Kay Ivey announced Wednesday that she’s running for reelection, citing Alabama’s “bucket load of common sense” in its response to the coronavirus pandemic. Ivey, 76, made the announcement in a video message released by her campaign. The Republican emphasized her administration’s investment in infrastructure, job creation, Alabama’s pandemic recovery and its low unemployment rate. “Alabama is working again, and the best is yet to come,” Ivey said in her distinct Southern drawl. Ivey faced both praise and criticism for her handling of the pandemic. Unlike some Southern governors, she issued a statewide mask order, a move that was criticized by some conservatives but won her praise from health officials and others for following scientific recommendations. That mask order has ended. She has often embraced GOP priorities during her four years in office, including signing the nation’s most stringent abortion restrictions into law, making performing an abortion a felony in nearly all cases. The 2019 law, swiftly blocked by the courts, was part of a wave of restrictions passed by Republican-led legislatures that were aimed at getting the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit the issue of abortion.