Paul Finebaum, a college sports fixture on ESPN and the SEC Network and with his daily call-in show, is considering a run for the U.S. Senate in Alabama.
Finebaum, a former sports reporter and columnist in Birmingham, told Clay Travis of Outkick in an exclusive interview that the Charlie Kirk assassination made him rethink his priorities.
“I spent four hours numb talking about things that didn’t matter to me. And it kept building throughout that weekend,” Finebaum, 70, told Travis. “I felt very empty doing what I was doing that day.”
Finebaum said he is considering a run as a Republican for the Senate seat that Tommy Tuberville is leaving. Tuberville is running for governor.
Finebaum told Travis that he understands that he will need to make a decision soon on the possible career change.
Qualifying with the Alabama Republican Party runs from January 5 through January 23. The primary is May 19, 2026.
“I’ve been made aware that the qualifying deadline is in January,” Finebaum said. “That’s ideal. I’d love to get to the end of the season. I don’t know if that’s realistic. I would like to make this decision fairly soon, in the next 30 to 45 days,” he said.
Finebaum told Travis he believes he could represent Alabama well.
“I’ve been speaking to Alabamians for 35 years. 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,“ Finebaum said.
Candidates who have already announced they are running for Tuberville’s seat include Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, U.S. Rep. Barry Moore of Enterprise, and 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.
Bruce Pearl, who announced his retirement last week as Auburn’s basketball coach, considered a run for the Senate but decided against it.
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.
According to the article in Outkick, Finebaum and his wife moved to Charlotte in 2013, the location of the SEC Network headquarters.
They moved back to Alabama this year.
“Alabama has always been the place I’ve felt the most welcome, that I’ve cared the most about the people,” Finebaum told Travis. “I feel there is a connection that is hard to explain.”
Finebaum said he voted for President Trump and said if the president asks him to enter the race he would do so.
“If the President of the United States says, ‘Paul, you’re my guy.’ Can you tell him no?” Travis asked.
“Impossible to tell him no. There’s no way I could. I would tell him yes,” Finebaum said.
Finebaum, a graduate for the University of Tennessee, spent more than 30 years as a sports columnist for the old Birmingham Post-Herald and as the host of his popular sports-talk show, which aired on WERC and later on WJOX.
See more: Paul Finebaum: ‘Bittersweet’ to be back in Birmingham and ‘to see what I left behind’
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