ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum, who has spent much of his broadcast career opining on Alabama football, said he’s seriously pondering a bid to fill the state’s U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Tommy Tuberville (R). Tuberville, the former Auburn football coach, has launched a 2026 campaign for governor.
Finebaum said his decision would be clinched if President Donald Trump asked him to do it.
“Impossible to tell him no,” Finebaum told Clay Travis of the conservative OutKick site on Monday. “There’s no way I could. I would tell him yes.”
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In the interview, Finebaum basically came out as a Republican who voted for Trump in 2024 despite saying that ESPN has told him to keep a lid on politics, including his ballot preference.
Finebaum is an Alabama institution. He worked as a newspaper reporter in Birmingham and moved on to hosting a popular radio show that got ESPN to bring him aboard in 2013. He now hosts “The Paul Finebaum Show” on ESPN radio and appears on multiple platforms, including the SEC Network, for the sports channel.
He said the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk may be the final push he needed to pursue something else.
“I spent four hours numb talking about things that didn’t matter to me. And it kept building throughout that weekend,” Finebaum said. “I felt very empty doing what I was doing that day.”
In a video preview of the interview (watch it below), Finebaum acknowledged that someone Travis described as “high up in the Alabama political universe” had talked to him about the Senate bid. The sportscaster described the approach as “compelling.”
The sports network veteran moved from North Carolina back to Alabama last year and re-registered to vote there, he said. He said he would make a decision in 30 to 45 days.
“I’ve been speaking to Alabamians for 35 years,” Finebaum explained. “I feel like I know who they are. I think they know who I am … you cannot hide when you’re on a radio show.”
