Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville sees Paul Finebaum as 'a force' if he were to enter race

On Monday, OutKick reported that Paul Finebaum is considering leaving ESPN to run for Senate in Alabama. Finebaum would be looking to replace Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who is stepping down from his position to run for governor in the state.

Like Finebaum, Tuberville has a background in sports. He served as the head football coach at Ole Miss, Auburn, Texas Tech and Cincinnati before running for Senate in 2020. During an appearance on the War Room podcast, Tuberville weighed in on Finebaum’s chances of winning the Senate seat if he opted to run.

“Paul is smart. He loves the country,” Tuberville said. “Again, been a friend of mine for a long time. I have not talked with him about it. I did an interview with him, 30 minutes, about two months ago face to face. It went well. I tell you, he’s got 100% name ID in Alabama.

“He’d have a lot of big people behind him. He would be a force in the race if he decided to get into it. But, again, I’m for people that come up here that don’t want to be in politics. They want to come up and help. I don’t support any of them. There’s no reason for me to get involved, but Paul is a good guy, a good friend.”

As of this report, Finebaum would be expected to compete with Alabama representative Barry Moore and Attorney General Steve Marshall for the Senate seat. Many sports fans expected Auburn men’s basketball head coach Bruce Pearl to announce a run for Senate in September when he retired, but Pearl is remaining in an advisory position at Auburn University.

Finebaum is a registered Republican in North Carolina and was a registered Republican in Alabama before he moved. He revealed to OutKick‘s Clay Travis that he was heavily influenced by the assassination of political commentator Charlie Kirk in his consideration of running for office.

“I spent four hours numb, talking about things that didn’t matter to me. And it kept building throughout that weekend,” Finebaum said. “I felt very empty doing what I was doing that day … It’s hard to describe, not being involved in politics, how that affected me and affected tens of millions of people all over this country. And it was an awakening.

“… “One or two people in Washington had reached out to me about whether I would be interested in politics, something I never thought about before. Something I didn’t really think possible… I gave some thought to it as the [after Kirk’s murder] weekend unfolded and got a little bit more interested.”

Finebaum has until January to enter the Senate race. Finebaum said he would certainly run for public office if President Donald Trump asked him to.