Republican Alabama Senator and supposed Russian mole trying to destroy US military leadership Tommy Tuberville’s eligibility for his Senate seat may be in doubt, with AL.com reporting Tuberville no longer owns property in the state of Alabama. Tuberville sold two parcels of land, one in Macon and one in Tallapoosa, his last property in the state.
Tuberville and his wife, Suzanne, own a house in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, a house the Senator’s office describes as a “vacation house,” and the sales agreements for the July transactions were notarized by a notary in that Florida town. Tuberville’s wife also holds a Florida realtor’s license; she does not have one for Alabama. Tuberville’s office says a property listed as belonging to Tuberville’s wife and son in Auburn, roughly an hour’s drive from Santa Rosa Beach, is their primary residence.
There are problems with that explanation, however. Expense reports show Tuberville flying from Washington, DC to Panama City, Florida seven times in 2022. Panama City is a 40 minute drive east of Santa Rose Beach–an additional 40 minutes away from Auburn. Many people leaving Auburn choose to fly out of Columbus, Georgia, just a 30 minute drive away.
“Coach has purchased and invested in real estate for decades,” Tuberville communications director Steven Stafford said in an email to the Washington Post. “Coach has owned the property in Santa Rosa Beach for two decades — he bought it while he was coaching at Auburn. He goes there upon occasion if he has a free weekend. It is within driving distance of Auburn. I’m sure many Senators have vacation homes.”
The Constitution mandates that Senators must be residents of the state they represent in the Senate at the time they are elected to office. Tuberville isn’t the only Senator to live outside of the area they represent: Missouri’s Josh Hawley lived in Virginia at the time of his election. And in the 2022 midterms, Republicans ran New Jersey resident Mehmet Oz in the Pennsylvania race and Texas resident Herschel Walker in Georgia.