Alabama’s Tuberville Announces Bid for Governor

Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville announced Tuesday that he will run for governor of the Yellowhammer State, following a recent trend of Republican congressmen and senators pursuing gubernatorial races.

“Today, I will announce that I will be the future governor of the great state of Alabama,” said Tuberville in his announcement on Fox News, adding:

I’m a football coach, I’m a leader, I’m a builder, I’m a recruiter.

And we’re going to grow Alabama. We’re going to bring manufacturing to this state. We’re going to stop this illegal immigration. We’re going to make education better again.

A former Auburn University football coach, the now 70-year-old senator assumed office in 2021 after winning more than 60% of the vote in the 2020 Senate race against then-incumbent Democrat Sen. Doug Jones.

Alabama’s current term-limited Republican governor, Kay Ivey, was elected to her second term with 66.9% of the vote in 2022, meaning Tuberville’s chances of electoral success are high.

Tuberville is far from the only Republican member of Congress interested in a gubernatorial run. 

Rep. John James, R-Mich., is running for governor of the Wolverine State in 2026, while Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., has said she is “strongly considering” a run in the Empire State. 

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., is seen as a likely contender for the Tennessee gubernatorial election.

Tuberville was a fierce opponent of the Biden administration’s agenda, blocking hundreds of the administration’s nominees for roles at the Pentagon over then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s policy of reimbursing service members for abortion expenses.

In the second Trump administration, Tuberville has been a strong ally of the president, supporting Department of Government Efficiency cuts to the federal government and introducing a bill in the Senate that would have ended federal funding for academic institutions that allow biological male transgender athletes to participate in girls and women’s sports. 

Tuberville also appeared last month alongside FBI Director Kash Patel in Huntsville, Alabama, where he applauded the bureau’s expansion of operations there.