Tommy Tuberville, ex-UC football coach, announces 2026 campaign for Alabama governor
WASHINGTON – Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville is running for governor of Alabama in 2026, the former Auburn University football coach and close ally of President Donald Trump announced on May 27.
Tuberville has served in the Senate since 2021. Before entering politics, he was a longtime college football coach best known for leading Auburn from 1999 to 2008 and is known by many in the Senate as "Coach."
Tuberville coached the University of Cincinnati football team from 2013-16, where he compiled a 29-22 career record, including a shared AAC championship in 2014.
"Coach Tuberville for governor," reads the 70-year old conservative lawmaker's new campaign website, which features a comment from Trump calling the candidate "a great champion and man of courage."
"A few years ago, I decided to give back to this great country and fight. President Trump was a guy that was really behind me in doing the Senate race, he's been behind me ever since," Tuberville said on Fox News, "and today I will announce that I will be the future governor of the great state of Alabama."
Tuberville said he will spend his next several months in the Senate ensuring Congress passes Trump's sweeping tax and policy bill. As governor, he said, he will bring manufacturing to the state, improve education, curb illegal immigration and "do everything possible" to ensure kids who graduate in Alabama stay to start their careers.
Tuberville has aligned himself closely with Trump throughout his political career.
He is the first official GOP candidate to launch a campaign to succeed Gov. Kay Ivey, who can't run again because of term limits. The Republican primary is expected to be more competitive than the general election in this deeply Republican state.
Tuberville previously beat former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions in the 2020 GOP Senate primary, who ran to reclaim the seat he held in the upper chamber for 20 years before leaving to join Trump's first-term Cabinet. Trump forced Sessions to resign from leading the Justice Department after he decided to recuse himself from the federal inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The president then endorsed Tuberville for the Senate seat and repeatedly blasted Sessions on social media during the Alabama campaign.
In 2023, Tuberville blocked hundreds of military promotions in the Senate to protest a Biden-era Department of Defense policy – issued in 2022 after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade – that gave service members time off and paid for travel necessary to receive abortions.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Alabama GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville to run for governor in 2026
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