Trump ally Tuberville announces run for Alabama governor

Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville on Tuesday announced his 2026 run for Alabama governor.

Tuberville, a top Senate supporter and ally of President Donald Trump, launched a campaign website that touts his “conservative Alabama values.”

And the senator made his first appearance after announcing his candidacy on Fox News’ “The Will Cain Show.”

“I’m doing this to help this country and the great state of Alabama,” Tuberville said in his Fox News Channel interview. “I’m a football coach. I’m a leader. I’m a builder. I’m a recruiter, and we’re going to grow Alabama.”

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“We’re going to bring manufacturing to this state. We’re going to stop this illegal immigration. We’re going to make education better again, and we’re going to do everything possible to make sure our kids… stay in this state and work,” Tuberville added.

Tuberville joined Fox News as he stood in front of his family and friends at an Auburn barbecue restaurant. 

The move by the former longtime college football coach — who spent 10 years as head coach at Auburn University in Alabama — ended weeks of speculation about his ambitions to run for governor in his homestate.

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Just a week ago, Fox News confirmed that Tuberville told donors at recent private meetings that he would be launching a gubernatorial campaign.

And a source familiar told Fox News a couple of weeks ago that an endorsement from Trump would be a “done deal” if Tuberville decided to run for governor.

Tuberville, in his Fox News interview, said Trump was “fully supportive” of his gubernatorial run.

He is also backed by the politically influential and deep-pocketed Club for Growth, a fiscal conservative group that takes sides in GOP primaries.

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Tuberville is seen as a front-runner in the race to succeed term-limited GOP Gov. Kay Ivey in the heavily red southern state. 

Alabama Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth, who had been expected to run to succeed Ivey, last week announced that he would not seek the office.

Tuberville was first elected to the Senate in 2020, running as an outsider who was closely aligned with Trump.

In the Republican primary, he topped former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a longtime senator from Alabama before resigning in 2017 to serve as Trump’s attorney general. Tuberville went on to defeat incumbent Sen. Doug Jones, who was the first Democrat elected to the Senate in Alabama in decades.

Tuberville’s move to run for governor sets up an open Senate seat in Alabama in next year’s midterm elections.