A reluctance to criticize his current employer as “woke” was the main reason ESPN football commentator Paul Finebaum decided against running for Senate in Alabama in 2026.
Finebaum discussed how he got interested in running for Senate during an interview on "The Takeout" with Major Garrett on CBS News on Thursday.
It all started after Finebaum headlined a CoachSafely Foundation event in August in Vestavia Hills.
“On the way out of the event, I shook hands with somebody that I knew, but there were a lot of people around. The next day, I’m back in Charlotte doing our show, and I get a text from this guy,” Finebaum said. “I’ll be a little careful how I describe it but he said, ‘You were great last night. It was fantastic. So and so and I are so happy that you’re back in Alabama.’ Final line of the text: ‘Do you want to run for the Senate?’ I can be indecisive about big decisions. For the rest of my life, which may be a month, it may be 25 years, I have no idea why I responded this way. I texted back, yes. Thus beginning the most bewildering three months of my life. Within five minutes, I was being connected to other people. This person is connected to a major person in Washington (D.C.).”
He continued, “Within two weeks, one of the top Washington political operatives and two of his colleagues showed up on my doorstep one night at 6 p.m. I did the show that day from my house, and we spent the next four hours mapping out the campaign. We were off and running.”
“I said, ‘Well, can I win?’ They said, ‘Absolutely.’ They showed me how I was going to win. They thought it was a particularly weak field,” Finebaum added. “They had tried to get somebody else to run. They had tried and failed to get Bruce Pearl, the basketball coach at Auburn, to run. He thought about it for a couple months, bailed out. They were down to their last swing, and they found me.”
Finebaum said he ultimately decided against running for Senate because he wasn’t willing to criticize his employer, Disney, as “woke.”
“Being in this cauldron for three months, I saw the path. I dealt with donors. I dealt with a lot of people. They kept rushing me in. Even Coach Tuberville called me at one point and said, ‘You can’t wait much longer. You’ve got to get in, FEC files, you’ve got to show you’re legitimate.’ I said, ‘Fine.’ I kept putting it off and putting it off,” Finebaum said. “Ultimately, the reason I couldn’t do it was the political operatives, and I know this sounds like I’m blaming something on other people, but I’m not. I’m just telling you the reality that you already know. They told me the clearest and cleanest path to victory. I was running as a Republican in Alabama, and I’m just going to paraphrase the political operative’s words: You need to run against woke Disney. I could not do it. I could not burn down the place I had worked for the last 13 years that had given me an opportunity as a Birmingham talk show host, and use whatever you may think of Disney, and plenty of people have opinions. Disney owns ESPN for those of you who don’t know. I couldn’t do it. I had several very prominent people, including two sitting Senators, tell me that’s your path.”
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email [email protected].
Don't miss out! Subscribe to our newsletter and get our top stories every weekday morning.
