Politico Magazine: “On paper, the July 14 matchup in Alabama’s Republican Senate primary runoff would portend a blowout favoring the home team. Jeff Sessions, a 73-year-old Selma native, is vying to regain a seat he held for 20 years, during which he was considered the most popular politician in the state. As an incumbent, Sessions never faced a primary challenger, and in his last race, in 2014, he ran unopposed. “You couldn’t beat him with anything,” says Steve Flowers, a former Alabama state representative turned political commentator.”
Sessions now faces Tommy Tuberville, a 65-year-old Arkansas native with no background in politics and scant connections to this state, except for having served as head coach of the Auburn University football team for 10 seasons more than a decade ago. Before he declared his candidacy last year, Tuberville hadn’t spent much time here since 2008, when Auburn essentially ran him out of town with a $5.1 million contract buyout after a losing season.”
“And yet, polling gives ‘Coach Tubs,’ who bested six other candidates in the GOP primary in March, a lead of as much as 23 points over Sessions in the runoff (which was rescheduled from late March because of the coronavirus pandemic). The Business Council of Alabama and other past big-money Sessions backers in the state have stayed silent—and mostly closed their wallets—in the primary, as well.”