Tuberville faces Alabama residency challenge in governor race

Alabama Republican Party leaders held a closed-door hearing Sunday on whether U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville qualifies to run for governor, putting his Alabama ties back under scrutiny just as he emerged as the Republican nominee. Former primary rival Ken McFeeters filed the challenge, arguing that Tuberville does not satisfy the state’s residency requirement and making the race as much about electability and credibility as about campaign politics.

The dispute turns on Alabama’s Constitution, which requires a governor to be a U.S. citizen for 10 years and a resident citizen of the state for at least seven years before the election. In Alabama election disputes, “resident” is generally treated as domicile, meaning physical presence plus an intent to remain. That distinction matters because the fight is not over a mailing address alone, but over where Tuberville actually made his home and intended to stay.

Tuberville’s campaign has pointed to heavily redacted Alabama income-tax returns from 2018 through 2024 that list an Auburn address and indicate the family moved to Alabama in August 2018. Public tax records also show an Auburn homestead exemption dating back to 2018. The Auburn home tied to Tuberville is 1,551 square feet and was purchased in 2017 by his wife and son before his name was later added. Supporters say those records reinforce an Alabama domicile claim.

McFeeters has pressed the opposite case with voting and property records. Tuberville voted in Florida in November 2018 and did not register to vote in Alabama until March 28, 2019. Property records show Tuberville and his wife also own a Florida beach home valued at $5.6 million, and public reporting says both homes appear to have been placed in a revocable trust. McFeeters has filed multiple challenges, including in court and at the party level, and he was blunt about his allegation: “Does he live in Alabama? No. He doesn’t live here.”

A Covington County Circuit Court judge dismissed McFeeters’ court case in May without reaching the merits, leaving the party hearing as the latest test of whether the challenge has legal traction or remains a familiar political attack line. Tuberville, who won the primary easily and has been endorsed by Donald Trump, has dismissed the claim as a joke. His campaign chairman, Jordan Doufexis, said, “We’re happy to put the residency issue to bed,” adding that it was time to provide the facts and move on.

The question has shadowed Tuberville before. He faced similar residency accusations during his 2020 U.S. Senate campaign, and the new fight revives the same underlying issue: whether public records support his claim that Auburn is his true home. For now, the challenge gives opponents a concrete line of attack, but the legal vulnerability depends on whether Alabama Republicans, and potentially courts, see enough evidence of domicile to let the governor’s race proceed without further doubt.