Former congressional candidate enters Alabama governor race

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Former congressional candidate Ken McFeeters announced Tuesday that he is running for governor of Alabama next year, casting himself as a political outsider and accusing his opponent U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville of being a “part of the establishment.”

Tuberville announced his highly anticipated candidacy for governor a week earlier. Tuberville is expected to be a strong candidate in the race to replace Republican Gov. Kay Ivey, who cannot run again because of term limits.

McFeeters is the second Republican candidate to enter the race. He ran for congress in 2024, winning 6% of the vote in the Republican primary, according to AL.com.

McFeeters runs an insurance agency just outside of Birmingham that he founded in 1981 and was the president of the mid-Alabama Republican Club, he said in his announcement. He said he plans to hire military personnel for Alabama schools, take steps to protect family farms, and prioritize independent production of medicine and energy.

McFeeters immediately tried to distance himself from Tuberville, a famed football coach of Auburn University who became a U.S. senator in 2020 after casting himself as a political outsider closely aligned with President Donald Trump.

“Alabama deserves better than a puppet of the globalists,” McFeeters said. “We need a governor who will fight for the people, not for the money.”