Paul Finebaum says he faces ‘ridiculously unfair attack’ on his religion in Alabama Senate race – AL.com

Paul Finebaum said he is still considering a run for the U.S. Senate in Alabama and he plans to make a decision when the college football season ends.
Finebaum was interviewed Monday morning on the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton radio show.
The SEC Network and ESPN host said he believes he would defeat the candidates who are now in the race.
Finebaum said he could appeal to Alabama voters in the same way Tommy Tuberville did when he was elected to the Senate in his first run for office in 2020.
“The people leading in the so-called polling are your career politicians,” Finebaum said. “I’m not going to waste time attacking career politicians. But the state of Alabama spoke six years ago with Coach Tuberville.”
He said voters were drawn to Tuberville because he was plain-spoken. He said former Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl would have had the same appeal if he had decided to run.
“They’re people that speak their mind, that don’t listen to pollsters, that say, I’m not going to do that because it’s going to help me get in with the White House or get the President’s endorsement,” Finebaum said.
“The problem we have nowadays, especially today, is that people just want to suck up,” he said. “They want to sell their soul, do anything humanly possible so they can get a check mark from the White House or the president or someone else.
“And that’s my biggest concern running. That’s not who I am.“
Finebaum told the radio hosts that he has been told that being Jewish would hurt his chances in an election, but said he “strongly disagrees.”
Finebaum said it would be one of his “major goals” to bring Christians and Jews together.
“I had a political operative tell me about a month ago, ‘Listen, I like you, I’ve followed you my entire career … but you’re Jewish and it will never work in Alabama,’” Finebaum said.
“I think people here have taken a ridiculously unfair attack and have been painted in a corner that may have been true 50 or 60 years ago but is not true today. And I’m not going to run on being a Jewish Republican Senator, if I chose to, from Alabama.”
Finebaum first announced he was considering a run for the Senate in an interview with Travis in late September.
He said then he was inspired to consider the career change by the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
The race Finebaum is considering is for the Senate seat Tuberville is leaving to run for governor.
Republican candidates who are already in the race include Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, U.S. Rep. Barry Moore of Enterprise, Jared Hudson, a former Navy SEAL who ran for Jefferson County sheriff in 2022 and who was the first Republican to announce he was running for Tuberville’s seat, Morgan Murphy, a captain in the U.S. Navy reserve who worked for the Trump administration and as national security advisor to Tuberville, and business owner Rodney Walker.
Democrats who are running for the Senate seat include Kyle Sweetser, a business owner and lifelong Alabama Republican who spoke at last summer’s Democratic National Convention, Dakarai Larriett, a business owner, Birmingham native, and University of Alabama graduate, and Mark Wheeler of Heflin, a Jacksonville State University graduate and chemist who works for a wire manufacturing company.
Finebaum said one factor he must consider is his long record in the public spotlight, including decades as host of a daily call-in show. He knows that will give opponents plenty of material to dig up for negative campaign ads.
“What also happens when you’re under that microscope, and every single thing you have said gets recorded and regurgitated is you have to answer for a lot of things,” Finebaum said.
“And that’s really where I am right now because all the low-level politicians and the operatives are saying, ‘Well, you said this about the president and you once said this about Nick Saban.’”
For example, Finebaum said he has been criticized because he praised Saban for joining his players in a Black Lives Matter march with his players in the wake of the unrest after the George Floyd murder in 2020.
Qualifying with the Alabama Republican Party runs from January 5 through January 23.
The primary is May 19, 2026.
Mike Cason has covered politics and state government for AL.com since 2013. Cason has worked as a reporter or editor since receiving a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Alabama in 1986…. more
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