When it comes to Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s troubled political career, there are two broad categories to keep in mind. The first relates to the Alabama Republican’s willingness to undermine the interests of his own country’s military as part of a radical anti-abortion tantrum.
The second is all of the other controversies the GOP senator has had to deal with.
The former will likely define Tuberville’s tenure on Capitol Hill, but the latter matters, too. Indeed, the Alabaman has been caught up in a variety of messes that have nothing to do with his blockade on confirming military promotions. As it turns out, a new one came to the fore this week, as the political world confronted a question few thought to ask:
Where does Tuberville live? Before you say, “The senator from Alabama probably lives in Alabama,” consider the latest reporting from The Washington Post.
Tuberville’s office says his primary residence is an Auburn house that records show is owned by his wife and son. But campaign finance reports and his signature on property documents indicate that his home is actually a $3 million, 4,000-square-foot beach house he has lived in for nearly two decades in Santa Rosa Beach, Fla., located in the Florida Panhandle about 90 miles south of Dothan.
The coach-turned-politician also apparently bought a condo in Washington, D.C., in 2021, his first year in Congress.
The Post’s report, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, went on to note that Tuberville, while on the campaign trail a few years ago, publicly conceded that he was “not an everyday resident of Alabama.” A few years earlier, the Republican also told ESPN that he’d retired to Florida. “What a great place to live,” he said at the time, touting the view from his Florida home.
The Alabama Democratic Party responded to the news by urging Tuberville to resign.
“Step down or go try to run in Florida since that’s where you live,” Sheena Gamble, the Alabama Democratic Party’s communications director, told The Messenger. “The people of Alabama need someone representing them who actually lives in Alabama, breathes in Alabama, and knows Alabama.”
Gamble went to describe Tuberville as “basically a Floribama senator.”
As for the lawmaker’s defense, Tuberville’s communications director told the Post that the senator’s Florida home is simply a vacation home, adding that his current residence is in Auburn, Alabama. The Post's report noted that some of the details in the aide’s statement did not “match up with documentary record.”
I don’t imagine we’ve heard the last of this one.