Will Ainsworth (born 1981) is an American politician serving as the 31st and incumbent lieutenant governor of Alabama since 2019. He served in the Alabama House of Representatives from 2014 to 2018, representing its 27th district.
Ainsworth ran for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor in 2018, and won the primary following a runoff election. He was re-elected in 2022 without Democratic opposition.
Early life and education
Ainsworth was born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1981, to Billy and Sharon Ainsworth. He was raised in Boaz, Alabama, and his mother Sharon was the director of the Real Life Crisis Pregnancy Center in Marshall County, Alabama, which encourages adoption. Ainsworth graduated from the Westbrook Christian School in 1999, then attended Auburn University and attained a bachelor's degree in marketing in 2004.
Ainsworth first worked as a youth pastor at Grace Fellowship Presbyterian Church in Albertville, Alabama. He co-founded a hunting lodge in Guntersville with his brother Austin in 2003, and helped create the Tennessee Valley Hunting & Fishing Expo trade show in Huntsville in 2011. During his career in business, he served on various wildlife and hunting committees, as well as the board of directors of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes organization. Ainsworth also worked in real estate as the owner of Ainsworth Real Estate and Ainsworth Homes in Guntersville.
Alabama House of Representatives
In the 2014 election cycle, Ainsworth ran as the Republican Party nominee for the Alabama House of Representatives' 27th district, which included parts of Marshall County and DeKalb County. The incumbent, Wes Long, chose not to run for re-election. Ainsworth was unopposed in the Republican primary and faced Democratic nominee and former representative Jeff McLaughlin in the November general election. When describing his reasons for his candidacy, Ainsworth said that he hoped to fight back against "career politicians", positioning himself as an outsider, and to prevent regulation of small businesses. Ainsworth campaigned on what he called his top three priorities as a state legislator: "jobs, jobs and jobs". He participated in a forum debate with McLaughlin in October 2014, and was endorsed by the Alabama Retail Association PAC. Ainsworth won the general election with 59% of the vote.
During his tenure in the Alabama House of Representatives, Ainsworth served on the House committees for Agriculture and Forestry, Ethics and Campaign Finance, State Parks, Public Safety and Homeland Security; as well as Transportation, Utilities and Infrastructure. Ainsworth was an opponent of same-sex marriage while in office. In 2015, he encouraged the probate judge of Marshall County to not issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, and called same-sex marriage an "immoral [attack] on traditional marriage". He also criticized Roy Moore's suspension from the Alabama Supreme Court over legal disputes regarding same-sex marriage, saying that the Southern Poverty Law Center was attacking "godly men" and forcing "immoral and dangerous beliefs onto society".
During the 2016 United States presidential election, Ainsworth served as the Alabama state chairman for Marco Rubio's campaign in the Republican primary. Following the revelation of Governor Robert J. Bentley's extramarital affair in 2016, Ainsworth attempted to introduce a recall election process in Alabama, which did not exist at the time of Bentley's scandal. Although his efforts received coverage in The Washington Post, the proposal did not become law. He also sponsored ethics-focused legislation to enact term limits and remove office holders who abuse their position. Ainsworth's other work as a legislator included workforce development and encouraging adoption as an alternative to abortion.
In February 2018, Ainsworth introduced a bill (HB-435) to arm teachers on school campuses in the aftermath of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. Although Ainsworth called on Governor Kay Ivey to convene a special legislative session for school safety, the bill ultimately failed in the yearly session.