From 1978 to 1987, Wallace worked at Troy University in Troy, Alabama. He was from 1978 to 1982 the director of financial aid and alumni affairs. From 1983 to 1987, he was vice president of development and alumni affairs. During part of the time he was at Troy, the faculty included Max Rafferty, former California Superintendent of Public Instruction, and former Governor John Malcolm Patterson, an intraparty opponent of both of his parents. In 1986, Wallace was elected Alabama State Treasurer, narrowly winning the Democratic Party primary and runoff over Jim Zeigler and facing no opposition in the general election. He was easily reelected in 1990. In 1992, midway through his second term, Wallace ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in, his family's home district, to succeed retiring 28-year Republican incumbent Bill Dickinson. He narrowly missed avoiding a runoff in the primary, but prevailed over state welfare commissioner Faye Baggiano, who had nearly toppled Dickinson in the 1990 election. Wallace was considered an early favorite in the general election, especially after his expected Republican opponent, State SenatorLarry Dixon, lost his primary to Terry Everett, a newspaper publisher from the Wiregrass who had never run for office before. However, Wallace lost the election in an upset to Everett by just 3,571 votes, less than 1 percent. It is believed that Wallace's loss resulted from the shift of most of the district's African-American voters, particularly in Montgomery and Selma, to the 7th district, which had been reconfigured as a black-majority district after the 1990 census in accordance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In 1994, while wrapping up his second term as state treasurer, Wallace ran for lieutenant governor, but finished third to Don Siegelman and Ryan DeGraffenried Jr.. After leaving the treasurer's office, Wallace worked at the Center for Government and Public Affairs at Auburn University Montgomery. He switched affiliations to the GOP and was elected in 1998 to the Alabama Public Service Commission, having defeated incumbent Democrat Charles B. Martin. He was reelected commissioner in 2002 but did not run again in 2006, when the Republicans nominated former state Representative Perry O. Hooper Jr., of Montgomery. Hooper defeated former state SenatorJohn Amari of Trussville in the Republican primary but then lost the general election to Democrat Susan Parker. Wallace instead sought in 2006 the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor and entered a runoff election with Birmingham attorney Luther Strange. Wallace lost by ten points despite appearances on his behalf from U.S. Senator John McCain of Arizona. Strange, in turn, lost the general election to Democratic nominee Jim Folsom Jr. of Cullman, a son of former Governor Jim Folsom who had previously served as both lieutenant governor and governor. In 2010, Wallace ran in the Republican primary to reclaim his old office of state treasurer, but lost the nomination to banker Young Boozer by nearly thirty points.
Controversy
In June 2005 he opened up the first day of the annual national convention of the Council of Conservative Citizens, a white nationalist organization. This was not Wallace's first interaction with the CofCC; he gave speeches to the CofCC once in 1998 and twice in 1999. He has also appeared as a guest on The Political Cesspool, a radio talk show that is affiliated with the Tennessee chapter of the CofCC.
