Yahoo Finance Former Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville wins Alabama Senate race
Former Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville is officially headed to Washington.
Tuberville knocked off Alabama Sen. Doug Jones in their senate race on Tuesday night, according to The Associated Press.
Thank you, ALABAMA! We’ve got our United States Senate seat back! #MAGA #ALSen https://t.co/EqHMcFjMOp
— Tommy Tuberville (@TTuberville) November 4, 2020
The Associated Press called the race with just less than 50 percent of votes having been counted in the race, though more than 61 percent of those votes had been granted to Tuberville.
Tommy Tuberville elected to first public office
Tuberville coached at Auburn from 1999-2008, racking up an 85-40 record while reaching a bowl game in all but two of his 10 seasons there. He also spent four years leading Ole Miss, three at Texas Tech and four at Cincinnati before retiring in 2016.
Tuberville, who has never held public office, beat former Attorney General Jeff Sessions in a Republican primary runoff in the state in July. He won that runoff race just one day after earning the endorsement of President Donald Trump — who infamously referred to Alabama coach Nick Saban as “Lou Saban” in the endorsement call.
Throughout his race with Jones, Tuberville repeatedly declined to engage. He never agreed to a debate with the incumbent and did very few media interviews. When he has, he’s fumbled repeatedly on issues.
Despite his inexperience, however, legendary political consultant James Carville noted ahead of Election Day that Tuberville held a significant lead.
“He’s got a 24-3 lead,” Carville told Yahoo Sports. “He’s going to run the ball, play prevent defense and run the clock out. It’s not necessarily a stupid thing to do. He’d never run before. He’s never going to debate or do anything like that. He’s never thrown a pass in an SEC game, he doesn’t have to pass. He’s ahead 24-3.”
Clearly, that lead was too much for Jones to overcome.
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