Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey aired a campaign ad Tuesday praising a law she signed that prohibits taking down Confederate monuments.

In the 30-second ad, the camera pans around a Confederate memorial outside the state capitol building. Ivey says that when “special interests” wanted to tear down monuments, she signed a law to protect them because “we can’t change or erase our history.”

The 2017 law prohibits altering or removing memorials more than 40 years old. It doesn’t specifically say Confederate monuments, but was enacted when Southern states were taking down similar memorials.

Last August, Alabama’s Attorney General sued the city of Birmingham for erecting a plywood box around the base of a Confederate monument. The city argues the structure didn’t alter the memorial.

The gubernatorial primary is June 5.

(Associated Press, copyright 2018)