(intense music) - [Narrator] Jim Folsom Jr. first entered the political arena in the 1970s.

After graduating from Jacksonville State University, he began his career in public service.

- When I became Lieutenant Governor, I was 37 years old at this point.

- In the 1980s, the Lieutenant Governor was a tremendously powerful position.

- They gave the autonomy of organizing the Senate to Lieutenant Governor.

That means he organized the Senate and gave the committee assignments, which is the most important thing of a 35-member Senate.

- [Narrator] Jim's accomplishment would be more than enough to get him reelected to a second term as Lieutenant Governor, but just two years into that term, everything would change.

- I, Jim Folsom Jr.

I really never thought that I would become governor by sending to the office that way.

- We could count on every Friday afternoon an ethics complaint being filed.

- Well, I'm not concerned about that there's going to be anything, you know, wrong.

His opponents didn't want him to be elected in '94.

So, they were softening the ground to weaken him as a political candidate in '94.

- [Narrator] Governor Folsom needed a win, needed it fast.

In 1993, Mercedes-Benz made a monumental decision.

- The company had decided to build a manufacturing plant, its first outside of Germany in the US.

- Jim Folsom Jr. has a very, very definitive legacy in Alabama history.

When he brought Mercedes here, he laid the groundwork for Alabama becoming the second largest and soon to be the largest manufacturing of automobiles in the United States of America.

If that's not a legacy, I don't know what is.

(intense music) - [Narrator] Thursday night at 8 on Alabama Public Television.