Who Gets to Call the Play? Coach for Governor and the Fight Over Alabama’s Residency Requirements
September 30, 2026
By Elizabeth Flachbart
Alabama’s gubernatorial race, which will be decided at the polls this November, has revolved less around the issues and more around one candidate’s residency – is Senator Tommy Tuberville, the Republican candidate for governor, really a Florida man? Tommy Tuberville has served as one of Alabama’s senators since 2020, after defeating incumbent Doug Jones (a Democrat who is famous for successfully prosecuting Ku Klux Klan members for the 1963 bombing of the Birmingham 16th Street Baptist Church). Tuberville’s brand is centered around his support from President Trump and his former career as a college football coach for Auburn University. Tuberville is now running to replace Governor Kay Ivey (R), who is no longer eligible to run because of term limits, and is facing off against his former opponent Doug Jones. However, Tuberville’s biggest obstacle this campaign cycle has been growing questions over whether he meets Alabama’s 7 year residency requirement for governors.
The timeline of Tuberville’s residency and domicile are murky. In 2017, Tuberville was seen in an ad proudly saying that he “lives and votes in Florida.” Tuberville has owned a beach house in Florida for two decades, including during his time as Alabama’s senator. Although Tuberville has pointed to a home in Auburn, Alabama as his primary residence since 2018, his name was not added to the property deed until 2024. It also appears that Tuberville maintained a Florida driver’s license until 2023, four years after he said that he moved to Alabama. Tuberville’s opponents also point to travel receipts that suggest Tuberville spends the majority of his time in Florida, arguing that his Auburn home is his primary residence only in name and not in fact. Questions about his residency have circled since his run for Senate in 2020, when his Republican primary opponent, former Senator Jeff Sessions (R), ran a “Florida man” attack ad. The first formal challenge to Tuberville’s residency came this January, brought by Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken McFeeters and was made to the Alabama Republican Party. The party conducted a formal hearing over Tuberville’s residency and unanimously agreed to dismiss the challenge. McFeeters then filed suit in Covington County Circuit Court, with the case ultimately being dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.
Covington County Circuit Court Judge Charles Short referred to the Alabama GOP’s motion, which argued that courts are not the proper venue for election disputes, citing Alabama’s restrictive election-jurisdiction In the dismissal of the suit, Covington County Circuit Court Judge Charles Short referred to the Alabama GOP’s motion, which argued that courts are not the proper venue for election disputes, citing Alabama’s restrictive election-jurisdiction statute. The Alabama code limits the jurisdiction of state courts over suits related to elections, stating that “No jurisdiction exists in or shall be exercised by any judge or court to entertain any proceeding for ascertaining the legality, conduct, or results of any election, except so far as authority to do so shall be specially and specifically enumerated and set down by statute.” The Alabama Supreme Court referred to this statute as a “jurisdiction-stripping statute” in Rice v. Chapman, holding that Alabama courts can only hear suits seeking to “impact the ‘conduct’ of the . . . election by having the court . . . remove the name of one of the candidates” if there is a specific statutory provision granting subject-matter jurisdiction over that specific issue.
The plaintiffs have appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court, arguing in their brief that this jurisdiction-stripping statute should not apply since they are not challenging the outcome of the Republican primary election but simply Tuberville’s eligibility to be governor. Tuberville argued that only the Alabama Republican Party and the Alabama legislature have the authority to determine constitutional eligibility requirements. The Alabama Attorney General filed a brief supporting Tuberville. The case is currently pending.
Even if the residency challenge here is baseless on the merits, it reveals how voters and other candidates in Alabama probably have little recourse to enforce candidate qualification requirements. The effect of this statute, and the hands-off approach that Alabama courts have historically taken when invoking it, is that the policing of qualification requirements is left to internal party discipline or legislative action. One can imagine why this might not lead to the best outcomes, especially in Alabama, where state-wide general elections are rarely competitive and the Republican party enjoys comfortable majorities in both houses of the state legislature. What incentives does a state party have to enforce qualification requirements with a candidate that is popular within the party and when there is little threat that the party would lose the election? It is understandable why courts traditionally exercise restraint in intervening in elections. However, courts – who are required to evaluate claims in a non-partisan manner – may be better arbiters over whether candidates have truly fulfilled the requirements required by the Alabama constitution.