U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) danced his way to the lectern in front of a packed Neville Arena crowd on Wednesday night at Turning Point USA’s “This is the Turning Point Tour” stop at Auburn University.
“I think I’ve been here before,” Tuberville opened, drawing laughs from the rows of Auburn students seated in front of him.
“I tell everybody that doesn’t know me very well backstage — ‘Coach, you been here?’ — I said, “Well, I live three blocks from here. Yeah, I’ve been here before.”
Tuberville, now the presumptive Republican nominee to be Alabama’s next governor, recalled his first encounter with slain Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk during his 2020 campaign for U.S. Senate.
“You know, Charlie and I met back in 2020 when I was running for Senate, and he actually helped me get elected. And, he was a very positive person, loved this country, but he really loved young people,” Tuberville said.
“You know, he and I talked a lot about education…and that was the one thing that he and I had in common. That’s one reason we talked a lot.”
Tuberville emphasized his role as an educator through coaching and Kirk’s mission to educate young people on politics.
“You know, he was high school educated, never went to college, but he’s one of the most smartest and most realistic people that I’ve ever met,” Tuberville said.
“Unfortunately, this deranged leftist coward — and I’m going to call him that — he was afraid Charlie’s message was becoming real. Charlie was waking up millions of people when they shot him. But the thing that happened, and I think as you see tonight, people woke up when this happened.”
Tuberville took the opportunity to share advice, largely drawn from Kirk’s, with the college and high-school students in the arena.
“The person you marry, he would say, is going to be the biggest decision of your life. Don’t waste your time just dating around,” Tuberville said on marriage.
“Look for that one certain person because that certain person is the most important decision, and it’s going to make your life better, and it’s going to make that person better that you’re going to marry. You’re going to have a long-lasting relationship.”
“I’ve said this often when I was coaching, [the] only thing this country owes you — and Charlie would tell you this also because I kind of ingrained it in him — [the] only thing this country owes you is an opportunity,” Tuberville said.
“You got the greatest country on the face of the Earth, folks, the greatest country. But it didn’t offer you a job. It doesn’t offer you money. It offers you an opportunity to do the best that you possibly can do.”
Tuberville also encouraged students to prioritize work ethic and a relationship with God.
You want to get better at whatever job you’re doing. But, as long as you’re alive and you’re working, also work on your personal development. Grow yourself. Grow yourself to Christ. Grow yourself to your family. Make yourself better every day,” Tuberville said to applause and cheers.
“If you’re trying to be successful and trying to make money and do all those things, it will hinder you. Don’t worry about all that. If you worry about personal development and work and do your work ethic, the success will find you.”
Tuberville also lambasted the United States’ $38 trillion debt, Democrats’ immigration policies, and identity politics.
“Our country is dead broke, folks,” Tuberville said, pointing out that $1 trillion is roughly equivalent to a three-foot-high wall of $100 bills stacked from Auburn to Atlanta.
On immigration policy, Tuberville did not hold back, prompting cheers and thunderous applause from the crowd.
“If you want to come here, we want you here. But come here the right way. But I want to say this, if you come here and chant death to America, you refuse to go by our laws, you burn our flag and hope and have no intentions of assimilating and doing things that we do in the culture of the United States of America, take your butt home.
Finally, Tuberville slammed DEI and transgender ideology.
“DEI is just discrimination under a different name…I’m for merit. When I went in Jordan-Hare Stadium, if I didn’t play the best people that worked the hardest, that could perform as a team and win games, I’d get fired. But today, in this country we’re allowing DEI to overtake our institutions, our agencies, and it’s absolutely ruining our country.”
“I’ve got…my first grandchild, Rosie Grace, eight months old, and I’ll be damned if she’s going to take a shower with a man when she’s in sports,” Tuberville added shortly afterward.
As the only major Republican candidate in the race for the Alabama Governor’s Office in 2026, Tuberville already carries seismic support within the GOP, but his hold-no-punches approach to his speech at Auburn clearly resonated with the students in Neville Arena.
In an effort to engage young Republican voters on a grassroots level, the Tuberville campaign recently rolled out its ‘Students for Coach’ wing, with door-knocking efforts beginning this fall.
The Alabama Republican Party primary is scheduled for May 19, 2025, 194 days from now.
Riley McArdle is a contributor for Yellowhammer News. He is a Senior majoring in Political Science at the University of Alabama and currently serves as Chairman of the College Republican Federation of Alabama. You can follow him on X @rileykmcardle.
