Tommy Tuberville doesn’t see himself as a politician, but he believes his status as an outsider may be an asset to his campaign for U.S. Senate.

“People are tired of politicians,” he said. “They want outsiders, someone who is more like them.”

Tuberville — who spent nearly 10 years as the head coach of the Auburn Tigers as part of a 40-year coaching career — is running as a Republican to unseat Doug Jones, who won the U.S. Senate seat in a special election in 2017.

In a stop in Cullman Thursday to visit The Sanctuary at the Woodlands, Tuberville spoke about his reasons for making the jump into politics and some of the issues that he would like to address if he is elected.

He said he has always wanted to be more active in public service, and his work as a football coach allowed him to help people and exposed him to a lot of the good and bad that the people in this country face, so he wanted to carry that further after stepping away from coaching.

“I started looking at ways to help this state and this country. I don’t like what I’m seeing on television in terms of what direction this country is going,” he said. “If there’s anything that I can do to help this country, it will probably be more through the political ranks than anything else.”

Tuberville said he has several policies that he has on his agenda if he is elected to the Senate, and some of the main priorities are personal security, supporting the nation’s law enforcement and cracking down on illegal immigration.

“We do need a wall,” he said. “We need to know who’s in the country and to me, that’s the most important thing we have on our agenda right now is making sure that we don’t have people in this country that are here to implement harm on American citizens.”

Tuberville’s visit to The Sanctuary at the Woodlands highlighted another issue that he would like to address — mental health care.

Since announcing his run for Senate and traveling around the state to hear from Alabama residents, Tuberville said he’s getting a look at how mental health care is underfunded and needs a new approach before the problem becomes too big to handle.

“It’s like building a football team, you’ve got to have a plan from the ground up,” he said. “It’s kinda like we’re putting band-aids on mental health.”

Tuberville said one of the driving forces behind his decision to run for Senate has also been the current term of Jones.

He pointed to Jones’ actions in office, such as his vote against Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court, to show that Jones is not listening to the people that he was elected to represent.

“To me, a priority of any representative — whether it’s Congress or Senate — you don’t vote party line, you vote how the state wants you to vote,” he said. 

Tuberville said he will not take a salary if he is elected to the Senate, as he believes people who serve in the legislature should be doing it for the right reasons and should consider their work to be a public service, and is looking to be Alabama’s next senator because he wants to give back and help the people of the state. 

“If I can do one thing, if I can help the state of Alabama in any one thing, I think it will be worthwhile,” he said. “I just want to give back.”

Tyler Hanes can be reached at 256-734-2131 ext. 138.Tyler Hanes can be reached at 256-734-2131 ext. 138.