Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville declared his candidacy for governor of Alabama on Tuesday, instantly establishing him as the frontrunner to succeed term-limited Gov. Kay Ivey. Though questions linger about the exact nature of Tuberville’s residence in the state he hopes to lead, few operatives in either party expect them to seriously halt his drive toward the end zone.
Tuberville, 70, had flirted with a bid for the state’s top job for months. Most sources agree that the retired football coach — who steered Auburn University to the SEC championship in 2004 — was never a natural fit for life as one of 100 members of the Senate. He introduced just 21 bills during the 118th Congress (zero of which advanced out of committee), and in April he was spotted playing hooky at the Masters Tournament instead of voting on a new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Tuberville has developed a reputation for frequent gaffes, perhaps best evidenced by his struggle to name the three branches of government in 2020. But he remains enormously popular among Alabama’s GOP base,
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