U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) said he still hasn’t decided whether to run for governor or run for another term in the Senate.
Yellowhammer News confirmed last month that Tuberville told a group of donors at a private event on that his mind is officially made up and that he will run for governor.
Despite the reports, Tuberville says publicly that he’s still weighing his options.
“You know what I want to do is what’s best for the people of Alabama, whether it’s a senator or governor,” Tuberville said Thursday on WVNN. “Now, there’s so much going on up here right now, and there’s really not a reason, other than a couple reasons I can think of, to make a decision one way or the other, because there’s not enough time in the day.”
Tuberville said he’s going to need to make a decision soon because he believes it could affect other political leaders’ futures.
“But I want to do what’s best for the people Alabama, but I will make a decision here soon, for this reason: There’s people waiting for me to make this decision,” he explained. “And if I stay, people need to get in the governor’s race. If I go the governor race, people need to get in this race. And we’ll need a very good senator up here that really understands the situation going on, that can make strong conservative decisions. So, you know, it’s not too far away…so we’ll keep, as you said, praying about it.”
Most likely the politician Tuberville is thinking about is Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth, who is expected to run for governor, but will have a much harder time winning a race against the senator.
While some believe Ainsworth might decide to run for Senate instead, the lieutenant governor said Thursday that he’s never really wanted to be a Senator.
“I really don’t have that much of an interest in running for the Senate,” Ainsworth said on FM Talk 106.5. “I think the only thing that I would consider running for is governor.”
“Obviously, there’s some big names out there, but, hey, I’ve been the underdog before, and if that happens again, that would be a lot of fun,” he added. “And that’s always kind of where I thought I could help the state the best is as governor, but we’ll see what happens.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
