By Opelika Observer Staff

Tommy Tuberville, former Auburn football head coach and political newcomer, defeated incumbent senator Doug Jones by earning __% of the votes in Alabama’s 2020 senate election. Tuberville was heavily favored to win the race entering Tuesday.

Tuberville won the Republican nomination for this race in July, defeating Jeff Sessions with a campaign built around support from President Donald Trump.

Platform

In a 2019 interview with the Observer, Tuberville said, “One of the main if not the most important issue brought up to me by people on the campaign trail is education. It’s something I’ve done for 40 years, and I’m very concerned by what I’m seeing. The secret to freedom is education. If people receive a true education, they learn civics and learn what this country is about—how and why we started and how we got to this point.”

He also mentioned the following main points of his campaign:

  • advocating for Trump’s proposed measures for border security and immigration policies
  • expanding trade school opportunities for Alabama students
  • improving rural Alabamian’s access to broadband internet services
  • lowering taxes and trimming the national deficit
  • maintaining statewide gun rights
    protecting Alabama’s ban on abortions
  • repealing and replacing Obamacare and return to a free-market system to incentivize competition, lower health care costs and obtaining a higher level of care.

Career

After graduating from Southern Arkansas University, Tuberville accepted a coaching position with Hermitage High School, spending two years as an assistant and two years as head coach. His success helped him land an assistant coaching position at Arkansas State University from 1980 to 1984.

Tuberville’s career took off at the University of Miami, where he served as a graduate assistant and later as defensive coordinator, coaching some of the greatest athletes in college football history like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Ray Lewis and Warren Sapp. After a season in Texas A&M, he left to become the head coach of Ole Miss’s program.

After three successful seasons and being named the AP’s SEC Coach of the Year in 1997, Tuberville accepted the coaching position at Auburn University, arguably his most notable stint in his coaching career. During his 10 seasons as the head of the Tigers, he compiled an 85-40 overall record, including coaching the 2004 team to a 13-0 record and a 16-13 Sugar Bowl victory over Virginia Tech.

Texas Tech and Cincinnati were Tuberville’s next coaching stops before he departed the college football world. Overall, he finished with 159-99 record in his career and 7-6 mark in bowl games.

Family

Tuberville and his wife, Suzanne, have been married since 1991, have two children named Tucker and Troy, and are active members of the Church of Christ.

LOCAL ELECTION RESULTS

There were two open seats for the Lee County Commission. Doug Cannon took the seat for District 1, beating out opponent Lindsey Bickerstaff. Incumbent Gary Long kept his seat for District 3, defeating his opponent Napoleon Stringer.

U.S. Representative for the 3rd Congressional District Mike Rogers beat Adia Winfrey.

Two races with local impact were uncontested: Lee County Revenue Commissioner (Oline Price) and Lee County Board of Education (Mark Tomlin).