Alabama doesn't need "folks in Washington" or "out-of-state liberals" instructing the state on what it should do with Confederate monuments, Gov. Kay Ivey said Tuesday.

Ivey, during a campaign appearance in Foley, defended a new campaign ad released earlier in the day that touted the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act of 2017, which she signed into law less than 11 months ago.

"I believe the people agreed with that decision and support in protecting our historical monuments," Ivey said after speaking at a Baldwin County Young Republicans function. Her appearance also occurred one day before the Reckon by AL.com GOP governor's debate at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Lyric Fine Arts Theatre in Birmingham. Ivey said she does not plan to attend.

"We can't and shouldn't even try to charge or erase or tear down our history. We must learn from our history," Ivey said.

The law requires local governments to obtain state permission before altering or renaming historically significant buildings and monuments that date back to 40 years or longer. The law also creates a 11-member commission which is charged with determining whether historic buildings or monuments can be moved or renamed.

Ivey, in her campaign ad, criticized Alabama outsiders for pushing an agenda on the state.

"Up in Washington, they always know better," Ivey said at the beginning of the clip. "Politically correct nonsense, I say."

She then claimed that "special interests" are pursuing the removal of the monuments.

But the law has seen plenty of opponents in Alabama, including the NAACP and members of the Alabama Black Caucus, which is an arm of the Alabama Democratic Party.

"We oppose the preservation act," said Bernard Simelton, president of the Alabama NAACP. "We still oppose it. We certainly think it's an attempt to preserve the Confederacy."

The law is subject of recent litigation in Jefferson County Circuit Court, where the city of Birmingham is pitted against the Alabama Attorney General's Office. In August 2017, two months after the law was passed, then-Birmingham Mayor William Bell ordered the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Linn Park covered with plastic - later, plywood - while lawyers could explore legal options.

Bell said at the time he wasn't going to have the statue torn down, even though there were calls for its removal. A rash of Confederate monuments across the U.S. were either removed or torn down in the wake of the Charleston, South Carolina, church massacre in 2015.

The issue has prompted standoffs in some cities, with defenders of the monuments claiming that governments should not remove symbols of cultural heritage. Those defending their removals believe the monuments memorialize a government whose founding principles were based on the expansion of slavery.