Tuberville officially running for Governor of Alabama in 2026

Incumbent U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville officially announced he will run for Governor of Alabama in the 2026 Republican Party primary.

Live from an Auburn staple, Byron’s Smokehouse, Tuberville announced his run in an exclusive television interview with “The Will Cain Show” on Fox News.

“I started my Senate run almost seven years ago, right in the same building,” Tuberville (R-Auburn) said.

“You can see my friends and family, my three month old new granddaughter, Rosie Grace, here cheering us on. But it’s great to be here. My wife and I, Suzanne, moved here over 25 years ago. As you know, I coached, and it was a great time. We made some great friends. It’s been a lot of fun. My two boys, Tucker and Troy, were educated here — it’s home.”

“A few years ago, I decided to give back to this great country and fight. President Trump was a guy that really was behind me in doing the Senate race. He’s been behind me ever since, and today I will announce that I will be the future governor of the great state of Alabama.”

Tuberville, who was expected to coast into re-election to a second six-year term to the U.S. Senate, has instead decided to run for a different statewide office. After many months of private deliberations over a 2026 gubernatorial bid, Tuberville began telling donors in April he had made his decision and he was ready to ‘come home’ and seek the state’s highest constitutional office.

Tuberville said on Tuesday that he is prepared to finish out the remainder of his term in the Senate, which will coincide with his potential inauguration as governor in January 2027.

On his newly-launched campaign website, Tuberville lays out an “Alabama First Agenda” anchored in fighting “woke ideology,” expanding school choice, and protecting Second Amendment rights. He promises to cut taxes, reduce government waste, and bring manufacturing jobs back to Alabama.

His campaign officially launched a slight campaign rebrand from his iconic 2020 logo and rolled out the news on official social media channels.

As governor, Tuberville also promises strong border enforcement and the deportation of illegal immigrants with criminal records, staunch opposition to taxpayer-funded abortion, and support for Alabama’s farmers, defense sector, and veterans.

Tuberville showcases an endorsement from President Trump and a promise to take his national agenda to Montgomery.

The path for victory is much more clear for Tuberville now that a long-awaited contender in the race, Lt. Governor Will Ainsworth, publicly announced last week that he will return full-time to his prosperous career in the private sector as his two children complete high school. Ainsworth was recognized as the only GOP challenger interested in and financed enough to meaningfully oppose Tuberville’s bid for governor. After first being elected as Lt. Governor in 2018, Ainsworth is term-limited from running again.

2026 is not the first time the former Auburn University head football coach has eyed the governorship.

In 2017, Tuberville filed official paperwork to run for the office following the resignation of former Governor Robert Bentley, and even invested $100,000 of his own money into exploring the bid. Tuberville ultimately dissolved that campaign, which he attributed to support consolidating behind Governor Kay Ivey, who announced she would seek election to the office after constitutionally stepping up in Bentley’s absence.

Tuberville finally took his big shot at statewide office in 2020 when he challenged then-incumbent Democrat U.S. Senator Doug Jones. At that time, the only thing standing in his way was the former U.S. Attorney General and the previous holder of that office, Jeff Sessions in the 2020 Alabama Republican Party primary.

Tuberville easily routed both opponents by over 60% and has served as U.S. Senator since he was sworn into the office in January 2021.

Candidates for elected office in 2026 were able to officially begin fundraising last Monday, May 19 – which marks exactly one year until the primary election date, May 19, 2026.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Tuberville had not yet formed his principal campaign committee with the Alabama Secretary of State’s office. However, he has plenty of time to do so, as party qualifying does not end until January 2026.

As effectively the only contender, Tuberville is expected to have no trouble raising those funds for his gubernatorial bid. Additionally, as of the end of Q1 2025, Tuberville reported having $628,327.28 in his U.S. Senate campaign account, according to FEC records. That total can be legally transferred into his state campaign account. Alabama law explicitly allows a principal campaign committee to transfer funds to another principal campaign committee on behalf of the same person.

Speculation over Sen. Tuberville’s ability to meet the more stringent seven-year residency requirement of the Alabama Constitution to hold the office of governor – rather than the U.S. Constitution’s one-day requirement to run for Senate – quickly dissipated across GOP circles in recent months. Legal challenges may emerge if Tuberville becomes the party’s nominee in 2026, however, such attempts would be further complicated and diminished by partisanship.

As “Coach” Tuberville prepares to fight for a new title in his professional career, he has remained consistent Tuesday with a commitment he impressed heavily over the years.

“I’m doing this to help this country and the great state of Alabama,” Tuberville said.

“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 the state. We’re going to stop this illegal immigration. We’re going to make education better again, and we’re going to everything possible to make sure our kids, when they graduate in this great state — the Yellowhammer State, that they stay in this state and work.”

“We’re going to have workforce development. We got a lot of work to do nationally. I’m looking forward to that with President Trump. He’s got us on the right track, but in the meantime, I’ll be running every weekend, doing the things I need to do to make sure that I can get over the threshold and win this governor’s race, come back to Alabama, work with President Trump — and not stop — because he’s fully supportive of this, to keep making America great again and put Alabama first.”

Grayson Everett is the editor in chief of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @Grayson270.