U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville weighed in Tuesday on the Paul Finebaum 2026 firestorm, saying his longtime friend would have to make a compelling case for why he’s running if he jumps into Alabama’s open U.S. Senate race.
Tuberville said he has spoken with several Republicans already in the field or exploring it, including Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, U.S. Rep. Barry Moore (R-Enterprise), Jared Hudson, Paul Finebaum, and others — but made it clear he’s not backing any candidate over another at this juncture.
“As I told Paul [Finebaum], who’s a good friend, has been for a long time: I’m not getting involved,” Tuberville said Tuesday morning on FM Talk 106.5’s “The Jeff Poor Show.”
“But here it is — this is what I see… When I was well known like Paul, people didn’t know my politics… If he does it, he’s got to go tell people why he’s doing it, not just who he is. People already know [he’s got] 100% name ID, but you’ve got to tell people his politics and what he believes in and what he’s going to try to do.”
“So is he going to do it?,” Tuberville mulled. “It sounded pretty strong.”
“Now, again, he’s going to make that decision, and we’ll see how far that goes. It’s going to be a hard race, only, like six, seven months now to the primary. So, it’s going to be an interesting time.”
Tuberville’s remarks come amidst a fast-moving dispute over Finebaum’s ESPN visibility after the SEC Network host said recently he’s considering leaving the network to run for Alabama’s open U.S. Senate seat as a Republican.
As Sen. Tuberville prepares to hand off his U.S. Senate seat to the victorious 2026 GOP nominee, the former Auburn head coach spoke to what sense of calling is important as prospective candidates consider their bid, and a new leader officially takes office.
When asked if he started a political trend as a high-profile sports personality entering the political realm, Tuberville was point blank.
“Well, I think people are starting to worry about their country — and hopefully so,” he said.
“We’ve got some good people up here. But there’s a lot of people who don’t need to be here. They’ve never had any they don’t have any leadership skills. They don’t know how to make a decision on their own. They’re followers instead of leaders. We need leaders in Washington, D.C.
“I don’t care if you’re a plumber, or electrician, or you’ve owned a business. We have a lot of lawyers here. For some reason this job, everybody looks at, ‘Well, you’ve got to be a lawyer.’
“No, you don’t now. You got to be an American.
“And you got to believe in this country, and you got to come make decisions for the country, all people in this country, and you got to protect this country. That’s what it’s all about.
“And so this nonsense of how, ‘You’ve got to know the law’ — that’s the biggest crock of crap I’ve ever heard.
“You just got to come up here and work and understand. I’ve read more in the last five years than I’ve read in my life. I’ve learned a lot about everything that’s going on.
“But, I’ve told you this: Our country’s in bad trouble — and we didn’t get here because of people that had great leadership skills.
“We had people that came up here just because they wanted to have a ‘Senator’ in front of their name. And they had no clue how to make any kind of decision.
“So, all these people running in Alabama for my position here, I think they have good leadership skills — and they’re doing it for the right reasons. So, we’ll get somebody good, and hopefully, hopefully they can come up here and make a difference.”
Grayson Everett is the editor in chief of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @Grayson270.
