Sen. Tommy Tuberville is running for Alabama governor in 2026.
The Alabama Republican launched his campaign website on Tuesday, ending weeks of speculation about his ambitions for the state’s highest office. He’s set to officially announce his campaign Tuesday afternoon on Fox News.
Tuberville is looking to succeed termed-out Republican Gov. Kay Ivey. He is immediately the frontrunner to win the seat in the deep red state, with other potential Republican candidates opting against a campaign. His decision also sets up an open Senate race in Alabama in the midterms.
Even before entering the contest, Tuberville’s interest in the post had already started to clear the field. GOP groups like the Club for Growth preemptively backed him, and other would-be Republicans candidates like Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth opted out of the race.
Tuberville is relatively new to politics, following a long-running college football coaching career at schools including Auburn University and the University of Cincinnati. He beat out former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions for the Republican nomination for Senate in 2020. Painting himself as a political outsider, he received President Donald Trump’s endorsement for the seat after the president had grown tired with Sessions.
Tuberville then defeated the incumbent Democratic Sen. Doug Jones in the 2020 election, putting the seat back into the GOP’s hands. Jones won an upset in the 2017 special election after then-senator Sessions left to become Trump’s attorney general — making Jones the first Democrat to represent the state in decades.
The first-term senator has been a staunch Trump ally since he took office, and is casting his campaign as part of Trump’s “America First” movement. His Senate seat will be one Republicans will fight to keep as they look to maintain their Senate majority in the midterm elections.
Jones is rumored to be considering another run for office, with his name being floated for both Senate or governor.
One of the biggest questions swirling around Tuberville’s upcoming campaign will focus on Alabama’s constitution, which has a seven year residency requirement for the governor. Tuberville has defended that he meets the requirements for the office.
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