U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, the Republican nominee for governor, speaks to reporters after voting in Auburn, Alabama on May 19, 2026. Tuberville on Monday submitted Alabama income tax returns from 2018 to 2024 to defend his residency, but an expert said they are not enough on their own to prove the nominee has met the Alabama Constitution's seven year residency requirement. (Anna Barrett/Alabama Reflector)
U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville submitted partially redacted income tax records on Monday evening from 2018 to 2024 to prove that he meets the Alabama Constitution’s residency requirement for governor.
The Alabama Republican Party (ALGOP) announced Monday that it will hear Ken McFeeters’ third challenge of Tuberville’s residency, who won the Republican nomination for governor on May 19. McFeeters, who got second place in the primary, would become the party’s nominee if the challenge finds that Tuberville has not the eligibility requirement to be a candidate for that office.
The Alabama Constitution requires candidates for governor and lieutenant governor to be residents of the state for at least seven years.
“The governor and lieutenant governor shall each be at least thirty years of age when elected, and shall have been citizens of the United States ten years and resident citizens of this state at least seven years next before the date of their election,” the Constitution reads.
Tuberville’s campaign said Monday it would submit income tax returns in order to prove the senator’s residency. The redacted returns show a partial return for 2018, beginning in August, where Tuberville and his wife Suzanne filed jointly and also reported filing Alabama income taxes in 2017. According to a filing to ALGOP in response to McFeeters’ challenge, Tuberville voted in Walton County, Florida, in 2018.
McFeeters said in a phone interview Tuesday afternoon that the tax returns open a new “can of worms.”
“He’s actually saying he’s a resident and they’re using that for his residency and his wife’s residency back in ‘18 as Alabama,” McFeeters said. “November of ‘18, they voted in Florida, and that’s a federal crime, for voting in a state you don’t reside in.”
Tuberville has long faced questions about whether he has been a resident of Alabama. Tuberville moved to the state in 1999 when he started coaching football for Auburn University. He told Alabama Daily News last summer that time contributed to his residency qualification, and has said a homestead exemption claimed on property in Auburn by his wife and son in 2018 is proof of residence.
AL.com reported in May of last year that Tuberville and his wife voted in Florida in 2018, after the homestead exemption was claimed. Langiappe, a Baldwin County newspaper, recently reported that Tuberville had an active Florida drivers license until 2023 and the state denied a public records request for any tax documents that would indirectly confirm Tuberville’s residency.
In Tuberville’s response filing, his attorneys argue that time off spent in Florida does not disrupt residency in Alabama.
“Most importantly, the documentary evidence presented to this committee will confirm a long-standing and continuous connection to Alabama. Contestant’s theory depends on speculation and isolated facts viewed out of context, while the actual records demonstrate that Coach Tuberville has been, and remains, a resident citizen of Alabama,” the attorneys wrote.
Susan Hamill, a law professor emerita at the University of Alabama, said in a phone interview Tuesday afternoon that income tax returns alone are not enough to prove residency.
“What the tax picture shows is a financial tie, in a sense, to the state in having earned state-sourced income that is legitimately taxable by the state,” Hamill said. “It doesn’t say anything more about the person’s residency, citizenship, the other indicators of resident citizenship that would speak to, are you qualified to be a candidate for governor, which is the highest state public office, or for any other public office?”
Hamill said that a candidate’s voting record would strengthen the residency argument, and that Tuberville voting in Florida in 2018 does not help. Tuberville’s filing says the senator registered to vote in Alabama in 2019, about two weeks before he announced his campaign for U.S. Senate.
“Where the heck you vote ought to be pretty darn important, because it’s all about voting,” she said.
She also said that having more than one residence does not disqualify a candidate, nor keep somebody from maintaining residency, as Tuberville’s filing argues.
“If he has more than one that crosses a state line, you’ve got to determine, does that destroy or impact your analysis of his residence here,” she said. “Which one is the real residence, and which one is the getaway for a while?”
The hearing will be on June 14 at 10 a.m. in Birmingham. A spokeswoman for Tuberville’s campaign said Tuesday that the campaign has requested the hearing be open to the public, but has not heard from the party. McFeeters said that the hearing being open is the “only way I stand a chance.”
“It’s no longer about what’s right or wrong, or what’s the truth. It’s about who’s got the most powerful attorneys and how much money you’re going to spend, and I hate that about it,” McFeeters said.
Tuberville is represented by Bert Jordan, a Birmingham-based lawyer who has represented the last three governors of Alabama, and has supported the ALGOP in U.S. Supreme Court amicus filings related to congressional districts. As of Monday afternoon, McFeeters had meetings planned with potential attorneys.
The party is represented by Balch & Bingham LLP, who McFeeters described as “the most politically connected, most powerful law firm in Alabama.”
From Alabama Reflector Post Url: Visit
Author: Anna Barrett