Sen.-elect Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.)

Date of birth: Sept. 18, 1954
Residence: Auburn, Ala.
Occupation: former college football coach
Education: B.S., Southern Arkansas University
Family: wife, Suzanne; two children

Former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville won Republicans back a long-held seat when he defeated Sen. Doug Jones (Ala.), the first Democrat to represent the state in the Senate since 1997.

Tuberville, 66, is a political newcomer and moved to Alabama from Florida in 2018, with his eye on running for political office. He said he initially thought about running for governor, but decided to skip on the race for the state’s highest office after Gov. Kay Ivey (R) announced she would run for reelection.

Before jumping into politics, Tuberville had a decades-long career as a college football coach, including at Auburn University. He managed to beat out a GOP primary field that included Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-Ala.) and ex-senator and former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Tuberville easily beat Sessions — who served for 20 years in the Senate but earned the president’s wrath for recusing himself when he was attorney general from oversight of the FBI’s Russia probe — during a primary runoff election by more than 20 points.

Trump endorsed Tuberville, who had aligned himself closely with the president, supporting his border wall, backing repealing ObamaCare and saying in 2019 that “God sent Donald Trump to us.”

–  Jordain Carney