Report: Alabama’s Senator Does Not Live in Alabama

Sen. Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the US Senate but records—and his own statements—suggest that he’s been living in Florida for years, according to the Washington Post. The Post, which dubs the Republican “Florida’s third senator,” reports that Tuberville sold the last properties he owns in Alabama last month and campaign finance records indicate that his main residence is a $3 million beach house in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida that he has owned for around 20 years. His wife, Suzanne Tuberville, has a Florida real estate license but not an Alabama one, according to the Post. Records show that the Tubervilles also own a condo in Washington, DC.

Tuberville, who grew up in Arkansas, was the head football coach at Alabama’s Auburn University from 1999 to 2008. In later years, he coached at Texas Tech and the University of Cincinnati. After 40 years of coaching, “I hung up my whistle and moved to Santa Rosa Beach, Florida,” he said in a 2017 video. When he registered to vote in Alabama in 2019, the year before he was elected senator, he said his residence was a home in Auburn, though records show that the home is owned by the senator’s wife and son, not Tuberville himself, per the Post. Campaign finance records show that Tuberville has listed expenses in Florida almost every month since he became a senator.

Steven Stafford, Tuberville’s communications director, told the Post that the senator’s main residence is in Auburn and suggested that the Florida property a four-hour drive away is a “vacation home” that Tuberville goes to “when he has a free weekend.” He didn’t deny that the senator no longer owns property in the state. The Post notes that while Tuberville cited residency requirements as the reason he decided against running for governor of Alabama in 2017, the rules are a lot looser for senators—the Constitution requires that senators be “inhabitants” of the states they represent, but under Alabama law, it only takes one day of residency to qualify. (Read more Tommy Tuberville stories.)