Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) has announced he will seek the Alabama Governor’s office in the 2026 election. This will leave a GOP seat open – but this is Alabama we’re talking about, so in a statewide election, it’s a pretty safe seat for the GOP and hopefully a MAGA pickup.
🚨 BREAKING: Senator Tommy Tuberville is running for Governor of Alabama in 2026 – Yellowhammer
This means – an OPEN Alabama Senate seat in 2026, ripe for a MAGA primary.
“Back in state while Congress is in recess, Tuberville told a group of donors at a private event on… pic.twitter.com/mdv3JcrzVS
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) April 24, 2025
The X post states in full:
BREAKING: Senator Tommy Tuberville is running for Governor of Alabama in 2026 – Yellowhammer
This means – an OPEN Alabama Senate seat in 2026, ripe for a MAGA primary.
“Back in state while Congress is in recess, Tuberville told a group of donors at a private event on Wednesday night that his mind is officially made up. Rather than seeking re-election to the U.S. Senate, he is ready to run his next race in Alabama, and serve the people of the state in Montgomery instead of Washington.”
Senator Tuberville had a career as a football coach before entering politics. He was the head football coach at Auburn University from 199 to 2008, and held several university coaching positions before that. In 2018, he moved from Florida to Alabama to run for the United States Senate, winning the election in 2020 over Democrat Senator Doug Jones. He has associated himself with President Trump. So far, he is the first one to officially announce a run for the seat being vacated by the Republican Governor Kay Ivey.
Senator Tuberville holds a rating of 91 from the CPAC Center for Legislative Accountability.
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This leaves an open Senate seat in the 2026 election, but this being Alabama, it’s a safe bet that the Republicans will hold on to that chair.
Should he be elected Governor, one of the things we can expect to see him push for is a return to shipbuilding in Alabama. Earlier this month, I wrote about a meeting the senator attended of the Senate Armed Services Committee, where he grilled several Navy officers on the topic.
On Tuesday, Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), in a meeting of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower, had the opportunity to interview several senior United States Navy officers on the state of shipbuilding in the United States, and that conversation brought up some interesting points.
Not surprisingly, Senator Tuberville is concerned with the state of the industry in his home state, where, in Mobile, the company Austal builds components that later go into U.S. Navy nuclear submarines – and that company is having some issues finding skilled tradesmen.
Other possible candidates include Alabama’s lieutenant governor, Republican Will Ainsworth, the former commissioner of the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs, Kent Davis, former Alabama secretary of state and Republican (since 2010) John Merrill, and Alabama agriculture commissioner, Republican Rick Pate.
The Alabama primary elections take place on May 26, 2026.
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