Tuberville’s entry into Alabama’s governor race sets up a direct test for Republicans to replace Gov. Kay Ivey, with the filing happening Monday at the Alabama Republican Party headquarters in Hoover. Tuberville said he is returning to Alabama after serving in the U.S. Senate and framed the next step as a homecoming that would focus on staffing and day-to-day state concerns.
After signing the paperwork, Tuberville said Alabama residents “deserve a better state every day that they live here,” adding that it was time to come home. He also said he would “put together a staff” and spend attention on the state rather than continuing to pursue another Senate term.
In remarks to reporters, Tuberville said business recruitment would be among his top priorities if elected governor. He described a focus on improving jobs for people with lower incomes, pointing to the size of Alabama’s workforce population that he said makes under $30,000 a year and saying the situation “should be against the law.”
Tuberville said he wants to get people “better jobs” and spoke about incentivizing work. He also said education and infrastructure would be priorities, and he said addressing fraud would be among the issues he would pursue, though he did not provide specific proposals during Monday’s remarks.
He said he does not oppose starting a state lottery, while arguing that a lottery would not generate enough money for the state to rely on as a revenue source. Democrats, meanwhile, have raised questions about whether Tuberville meets the state’s constitutional residency requirement for governor, which requires governors to have been “resident citizens of this state” for at least seven years.
Tuberville responded that the residency issue is not a problem, telling reporters on Monday that “I have been a resident.” Asked where he spends most of his time outside of Washington, Tuberville said Auburn, and said he is not home very often but “went to almost every football game down there this year.”
Tuberville won his Senate election in 2020 by presenting himself as a political outsider aligned with President Donald Trump. The AP report also noted that in 2023 Tuberville maintained a monthslong blockade on military promotions tied to opposition to a Pentagon policy that provided travel funds and support for troops and their dependents seeking abortions in places where the procedure is now illegal.
The filing could reduce the likelihood of additional Republicans joining the race to replace Ivey. On the Democratic side, former U.S. Sen. Doug Jones is already running for governor, creating a potential rematch in the November general election against Tuberville.