An Alabama insurance agent running for governor is challenging U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s eligibility to seek the office, accusing the football coach-turned
-politician of not meeting the legal requirement to have lived in the state for seven years.
Ken McFeeters, who is running against Tuberville for the Republican nomination for governor, filed the challenge Tuesday with the Alabama Republican Party. Mc
Feeters in a phone interview said he believes Tuberville lives in a multimillion-dollar beach home in Florida instead of a smaller home that he has listed as his residence in Auburn, Alabama.
McFeeters
Property tax records show the former Auburn University football coach has a home in Auburn, Alabama ,with an appraised value of $291,780 on which he claims a
homestead exemption. He also has a beach home in Walton County, Florida with an estimated market value of $5.5 million, according to property records.
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The Auburn house was initially purchased by Tuberville’s wife and son in 2017. The senator’s
name was later added to the property, and the son’s name removed. Both the Auburn and Florida homes appear to have recently been put in a revocable trust with Tuberville’s wife as trustee.
“It’s belittling to the average person in Alabama for him to think we believe that he’s being sincere when he says he lives at his son’s $300,000 house wh
en he’s got a $6 million beach house. Where would you live?” McFeeters said.
McFeeters wrote in his letter to party officials that the available records, “if accurate, strongly suggest that Auburn may have been used as an address of convenience rather than as a true domicile.” McFeeters said Tub
erville’s travel records also show frequent travel to the Florida Panhandle, which he said buttresses the idea that he resides in the location.
Mallory Jaspers, a spokeswoman for Tuberville, called the challenge a “ridiculous PR stunt from a desperate candidate.”
“Senator Tuberville has proudly represented Alabama in the United States Senate for the past six years. This made-up narrative didn’t work when he was running
for Senate in 2019, and it certainly isn’t going to work now,” Jaspers wrote in an email. Jaspers said the Auburn home remains the senator’s primary residence.
Tuberville faced similar accusations in his Senate campaign. Opponents called him “F
lorida man” or a “tourist in Alabama.” The Senate has a less stringent residency requirement before taking office.