Over the weekend, the Alabama Republican Party dismissed a ballot challenge questioning whether U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) meets Alabama’s seven-year residency requirement to run for governor in 2026, closing out a short, rules-driven review process that unfolded as candidates qualified for the May primary.

According to reports shared with Yellowhammer News, the Alabama Republican Party Steering Committee voted to deny a formal hearing on a residency complaint filed against Tuberville, effectively allowing him to remain on the Republican primary ballot.

On Monday morning, Tuberville’s campaign chairman Jordan Doufexis released a statement and described the challenge filed by long-shot primary opponent Ken McFeeters as a “hoax” created by Democrats in 2020 when Tuberville went head-to-head with then-incumbent U.S. Senator Doug Jones (D-Mountain Brook).

“Finally, common sense has prevailed and this made-up ‘residency’ hoax will be put to bed for good,” Doufexis said.

“I thought we were done with this after his opponents and the liberal media used this same line of attack in 2019 and Coach went on to hammer incumbent Senator Doug Jones during the 2020 Senate campaign by 20 points – but apparently a desperate primary opponent didn’t get the message this time around.

The facts are the facts: Coach Tuberville spent a decade in Alabama coaching football and raising his family. After his sports career ended, he moved back home to Alabama and has held a driver’s license, voted, and lived in Auburn, Alabama, since 2019. He has spent the past six years proudly representing Alabama in the United States Senate.

Sen. Tuberville looks forward to securing the nomination, destroying Doug Jones again, and being sworn in as Alabama’s next governor.”

In his complaint, McFeeters argued Tuberville does not meet the Alabama Constitution’s requirement that a governor be a “resident citizen” of the state for seven years immediately preceding Election Day.

He used property records often cited in past attacks on Tuberville as evidence, including an Auburn home and a higher-value Florida beach property, to argue Tuberville’s true domicile is not Alabama.

Under ALGOP’s internal rules, the initial question is not a full-blown trial, but whether a filed challenge and its supporting paperwork rise to the level that warrants a hearing at all.

Such was the case for Tuberville’s primary residency challenge.