Tommy Tuberville
Thomas “Tommy” Hawley Tuberville (1954- ) is one of the current U.S. senators representing Alabama. Prior to his 2020 election to the U.S. Senate, Tuberville had a lengthy and successful career as a college football head coach, including 10 years at Auburn University in Auburn, Lee County. In addition to his careers in coaching and politics, Tuberville co-founded an investment firm in 2008 and founded a charitable foundation in 2014.
Tuberville was born on September 18, 1954, in Camden, Arkansas, to parents Olive Nell Tuberville and Charles R. Tuberville Jr.; he was one of three children. Tuberville's father served in World War II, for which he received five Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart. Tommy Tuberville graduated from Harmony Grove High School in Camden in 1972 and then attended Southern State College (now Southern Arkansas University) in Magnolia, Arkansas, where he played football and golf. He earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education in 1976.
Tuberville began his football coaching career at Hermitage High School in Hermitage, Arkansas. After two seasons there, Tuberville was hired as an assistant coach at Arkansas State University. From 1986 to 1993, Tuberville was a member of the coaching staff at the University of Miami. His tenure included three national championship teams, 1987, 1989, and 1991. In 1994, he worked as defensive coordinator and linebacker coach at Texas A&M University.
Beginning in 1995, Tuberville served as head coach at the University of Mississippi (“Ole Miss”) for four seasons; he was named Southeastern Conference (SEC) Coach of the Year in 1997 by the Associated Press. While at Ole Miss, Tuberville made a statement before the 1997 homecoming game urging fans not to bring Confederate flags into the stadium, believing that such displays hurt recruiting efforts.
After the 1998 season, Tuberville took over as head coach for Auburn University. Over his 10-year tenure at Auburn, Tuberville amassed an 85-40 overall record, won five SEC Western Division Titles, led the team to eight consecutive bowl games (including five New Year's Day bowls), and became the only Auburn coach to beat rival University of Alabama in six straight Iron Bowl games, thus far. The highlight of his Auburn career came in 2004, when Auburn played a perfect 13-0 season, winning both the SEC championship title and the Sugar Bowl. Tuberville would also go on to win multiple Coach of the Year awards for that season including: the Paul "Bear" Bryant Coach of the Year, Associated Press Coach of the Year, Walter Camp Coach of the Year, Sporting News Coach of the Year, among others. After a disappointing 5-7 season, Tuberville left coaching in 2008 and began working as an analyst for Buster Sports and ESPN. That same year, Tuberville was inducted into the Southern Arkansas University Hall of Fame and the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame.
Tuberville returned to college football in 2010 when he took the head coaching job at Texas Tech University. After three seasons at Texas Tech and a 20-17 overall record, Tuberville left to become the head coach at the University of Cincinnati. After a promising first two seasons, Tuberville and the team had a disappointing 4-8 season in 2016, leading to his decision to step down. Tuberville has not coached college football since.
Outside of his coaching career, Tuberville co-founded an investment firm and founded a charity organization, the Tommy Tuberville Foundation. Both organizations have served as points of controversy among Tuberville’s critics. After finishing his coaching tenure at Auburn University, Tuberville joined John David Stroud to form the investment firm TS Capital in 2008. After four years, a group of former clients sued the company for fraud. Tuberville quickly denied any wrongdoing and claimed that he had never solicited any investments from the clients and was the victim of similar fraud. In 2013, the U.S. District Court indicted Stroud. After pleading guilty, Stroud received a ten-year sentence. The Court never indicted Tuberville, and he settled a related lawsuit before the trial.
Tuberville founded his charitable foundation in 2014 with an expressed focus on assisting the U.S. military and veterans and education and health issues. But during his Senate campaign, the foundation came under fire from claims that it had only spent a small portion of the donations it received on charitable causes. His campaign denied the allegations and accused the media of working with Doug Jones, his then-opponent for the Senate, to malign him. Most recently, a Tuberville spokesman has said the foundation was under audit and had paused activities.
In 2018, Tuberville moved from Florida to Alabama to run for the U.S. Senate as a Republican. According to Alabama state law, a person need only be a state resident for one day to be eligible to run for office. Initially, his campaign had a low profile. The front-runner, former senator Jeff Sessions, was seeking his Senate seat again after serving as the U.S. attorney general under Pres. Donald Trump. Sessions's relationship with President Trump soured, however, when Sessions recused himself from the investigation into Russian election interference, leading the president to endorse Tuberville. This endorsement propelled Tuberville’s Republican primary win. Tuberville then defeated incumbent Doug Jones in the 2020 general election with 60 percent of the vote.
In the early days of his term that began in the 117th Congress, Tuberville voted with a group of Republicans in the House and Senate against certifying the electoral college votes in the 2020 election, specifically Arizona's and Pennsylvania's votes, on the false claims of voter fraud. That day, January 6, 2021, supporters of President Trump rioted at the U.S. Capitol, postponing the certification of Joseph R. Biden’s presidential victory. Tuberville notably took a call from Trump during the riot.
During his tenure in the Senate, Tuberville has served on the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, the Armed Services Committee, the Committee on Health, Education, and Labor Pensions, and the Committee on Veteran's Affairs. He has introduced one bill, the Supporting Families of the Fallen Act in the 117th Congress, that was signed into law (P.L. 117-209), in October 2022. It aims to improve government-provided insurance coverage for enrolled servicemembers and veterans. Tuberville has also introduced some other notable bills to the Senate, such as the Financial Freedom Act of 2022 (which allows for the inclusion of cryptocurrency in individual retirement accounts) and the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, which would forbid public schools from allowing transgender athletes to participate in women's sports.
Universally, Tuberville supports President Trump and high-profile Republican policy platforms, including efforts to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, maintain a broad interpretation of the Second Amendment, and impose tariffs on many imported products. He also advocates for conservative policies related to reproductive rights and signed an amicus brief supporting the overturning of Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case that went before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022. He notably held up the senatorial confirmations of numerous senior military officials for approximately 11 months after the Department of Defense allowed pregnant servicemembers leave and reimbursement for travel costs to states where they could obtain legal abortions. His actions were criticized by both Democrats and Republicans and the Secretary of Defense, Alabama native Lloyd Austin. Both Tuberville and Alabama senator Katie Britt, as well as U.S. Representative Dale Strong of the Fifth Congressional District, have been lobbying the Trump administration to locate the headquarters of Space Command at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Madison County, instead of Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Tuberville frequently appears on conservative media outlets. He has been disparaged in other media platforms for verbal gaffes and misunderstandings about how the federal government is structured, the constitutional role of senators, and the efficacy of vaccines. More recently, Tuberville has been criticized for questioning U.S. aid for American ally Ukraine and possibly undermining its defense against the 2022 Russian invasion.
In his personal life, Tuberville has been married twice: first, to Vicki Lynn Harris in 1976 (divorced in 1991), and later, to his current wife, Suzanne Fette, in 1991. He and Suzanne have two sons.
