By Lynda Kirkpatrick
Elections are all about hiring new employees to work for the voters. Sometimes our candidates forget that this is actually what we are doing. When you go for a job interview, you want to put your best foot forward to impress. You certainly do not refuse to go to an interview and expect to get the job. This is a similar concept to having a debate, for the voters to see the difference in the candidates, hear their opinions, know their qualifications, and make a decision on who they want to vote for, or in this concept, who to hire for the position.
The first thing we do is choose who is qualified for the “interview”. If we are hiring a manager for our business, we do not interview a plumber. We ask for the resume and take a look at the education, experience, and qualifications. Is Tommy Tuberville qualified for this job? Is Doug Jones qualified for this job?
There are rules in the Constitution of Alabama, Article V, Section 117, that are clear as to the qualifications required to run for Governor of Alabama. First, the Governor must be at least thirty years old when elected, and shall have been a citizen of the United States for ten years and a resident of the State of Alabama for seven years before the date of election. This is not rocket science. It is simply put and not hard to understand. What is hard to understand is why the State of Alabama is having so much turmoil to quality our candidates.
The big question lurking over Alabama is Does Tommy Tuberville qualify to run for Governor of Alabama? The timeline tells the story. The question remains if he is a resident of Alabama or is he a resident of Florida at the time that he qualified to run for Governor.
Tuberville Timeline
-2016 Tuberville moved into his five-million-dollar beachfront estate in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. 4 years before he ran for the Alabama Senate
-2017 March, Tuberville files to run for Governor of Alabama. Tuberville is still registered to vote in the State of Florida. He is not a resident of Alabama
-2017 April, Tuberville says he “will not” run for Governor of Alabama
-2017 May Tuberville’s son, Tucker, files for a homestead in Auburn, Alabama. Tuberville’s name is never on the homestead in Auburn.
-2017 May Tommy Tuberville registered to vote in Florida. Tuberville filed to run for Governor of Alabama a month before. He was not a citizen of Alabama.
-2018 January 1, Tuberville’s homestead benefits in Florida are active.
-2018 August 1, Tuberville claims Alabama residency based on his 2019 tax return. Tuberville’s tax return does not show that he owned any property in the State of Alabama.
-2018 August 29, Tuberville used his Florida address on legal documents as his “home address”
-2018 October Tuberville used a Florida address for a PAC contribution
-2018 November Tuberville votes in the State of Florida. Tuberville is a resident of the State of Florida,
-2019 March Tuberville registers to vote in the State of Alabama. Tuberville does not have an Alabama ID to register to vote
-2019 March Tuberville gets an Alabama driver’s license. Tuberville does not have an Alabama ID until AFTER he registered to vote.
-2019 April 6, Tuberville announced his candidacy for Alabama Senate Alabama Constitution says he has to be a citizen of the State of Alabama for ONE DAY.
-2019 September 23, Tuberville files taxes in Alabama, claiming that he has resided there since August 1, 2018. Tuberville claimed his Florida address as his “home address” when he voted in Florida in the November 2018 election, less than a year before.
-2020 March 3, Tuberville votes in the State of Alabama. Tuberville is still registered to vote in the State of Florida. NOT Alabama.
-2020 March 20, Tuberville’s Florida voter registration is canceled AFTER he had voted in Alabama on March 3, 2020. Voter Fraud!
-2020 November Tuberville is elected as an Alabama Senator to the United States Congress
-2023 February Tuberville’s Florida driver’s license is still active.
-2023 July, Tuberville’s Florida address is still on his records
-2025 May 27, Tuberville announces that he is running for Governor of Alabama. Tuberville is not a resident of the State of Alabama
-2026, Tuberville continues to live in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida
Tommy Tuberville is not a resident of the State of Alabama based on the records of his residency. He lived in Florida in 2026, which does NOT meet the seven-year requirement to run for Governor of Alabama
In accordance with the Constitution of Alabama, the Governor is responsible for upholding and executing the laws of the State of Alabama. The Governor is also the Commander-In-Chief of the State’s military, including the Alabama Army National Guard, and Alabama Air National Guard, which are a part of the National Guard of the United States and the Alabama State Defense Force. IF our Governor is himself violating our Constitution, how can we expect him to have the honor to enforce it?
It is no secret that Tommy Tuberville has not been forthcoming with any plans for Alabama. He has no platform. We live in one of the poorest states in the nation that has been run even further into poverty by the Republican regime, which has been running this State for the past two decades. How can we promise ourselves that things will get any better until there are changes made?
Tuberville has not been shy about his unquestionable support for Donald Trump. If we take a good look at what Trump is doing and has done to this country is enough to know that we do not need Tuberville doing the same thing to our State.
While serving in the United States Senate, Tuberville has missed over 14% of the votes. When he has voted, his record has not always been to benefit the people in Alabama. He voted against the Equality Rights Amendment. He voted against the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and opposed the affirmative action and DEI programs. He blocked the promotions of over 400 military officers that put our country in harm’s way. He participated in Trump’s fraud claim that the election was stolen. He voted to omit Arizona and Pennsylvania from the counting of presidential electors, which would have altered the outcome of the election in Trump’s favor. In July 2021, Tuberville was accused of violating the STOCK Act by failing to meet a financial disclosure deadline.
Poverty is a big problem in Alabama. We have thousands depending on Medicaid, and hospitals that have closed because Gov Ivey refused the expansion of Medicaid that would have not only helped those who depend on it for their healthcare but would have helped keep our hospitals open. We are at risk of seeing more of our hospitals closing, especially in the rural areas where they are desperately needed. Has Tuberville given us any hope that he will work with the Democrats to improve the healthcare of the people of Alabama? No.
Education has been a sore spot in Alabama for years. We have championship football teams, but we can’t provide a quality education for our children. Some of our rural schools do not have up-to-date computers or textbooks. The learning curve is not up to the quality standards of other public schools in our country. This makes it harder for our children to keep up with the requirements to maintain a college education. It’s like falling dominoes. If our children do not get the education that they need, and they can’t pass in college, they will not get the best jobs.
What does Doug Jones bring to the table? He, too, represented Alabama in the United States Senate. Alabama now has the strictest laws on abortion in the nation. Jones voted against banning abortion after twenty weeks of pregnancy and consistently opposed measures that would ban the use of Federal funds for abortions. He voted against the confirmation of Supreme Justice Brett Kavanaugh and various lower court judicial nominees put forth by Donald Trump. He voted to oppose the repeal or dismantling of the Affordable Care Act that caused over twenty million Americans to lose their healthcare. Jones supported the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2019, to fund Federal agencies to avoid a government shutdown. He voted in favor of the First Step Act that is a bill aimed at reducing the Federal prison population and reforming sentencing.
Jones voted to convict Trump on both articles of impeachment for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Doug Jones has a website that clearly states his platform. First, Jones is focused on lowering the everyday cost that we are dealing with today. He wants to eliminate the grocery tax, raise wages, and end taxes on overtime pay. Jones wants to create an Earned Income Tax Credit, expand childcare options, and provide a free community college opportunity. He has a plan to expand Medicaid to cover more than 150 thousand working Alabamians and strengthen rural healthcare. He wants to put a State Lottery on the ballot for the voters to decide for themselves if they want a lottery to invest in education, healthcare, and infrastructure. Jones has a plan to increase the supply of affordable housing for working families. Have you heard Tuberville talk about ANY of this?
To decide which of these two candidates is the best for Alabama is a “no-brainer”! We have a candidate who is lying about his qualifications, and in line with a convicted felon, sexual predator, draft dodging coward, who is a narcissistic sociopathic liar who doesn’t have but one promise, and that is to follow Trump’s lead, or… we have a proven candidate that has a platform to help Alabama pull out of this quicksand mess of drowning in poverty.
I am endorsing Doug Jones for Governor of Alabama because I want to move Alabama out of the stale sameness that is getting our State nowhere. We don’t need more of the same because it changes nothing. I am asking the people of Alabama, regardless of your political affiliation, or your gender, or your religion, or your race, or who you choose to love, to Stand Up For Alabama and send Tuberville home to Florida and hire Doug Jones as Governor of Alabama.
Lynda Kirkpatrick