With U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) considering a run for governor, Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth, who has also shown interest, said the potential political matchup could be "one for the history books." But given Tuberville's superior name recognition, Ainsworth's time may be better spent elsewhere, according to Birmingham radio host Leland Whaley.
Whaley hosts the popular talk news show "Leland Live" on Birmingham's Talk 99.5. Last week, he joined "1819 News: The Podcast," where he discussed a wide range of topics, including his thoughts on the 2026 governor's race.
Though the election is nearly 600 days away, Tuberville appears to be the guy to beat if he does decide to run. One other potential candidate, Ag Commissioner Rick Pate, said he'd rather run for a different office than go up against the former Auburn football coach. Whaley recommended the same course of action for Ainsworth, arguing the hurdle of name recognition would be too much for the lieutenant governor to overcome despite being a prominent figure in state politics.
The relevant portion begins around the 29:30 mark.
"Ainsworth shouldn't be eating Wheaties. He should be eating toast because he's toast if Tuberville gets in this, period," Whaley said, referring to Ainsworth's recent X post. "... Just as a function of the mechanics of a campaign, name identification is worth at least, if your statewide name-identified, my guess is that's a $10 million to $12 million value."
Whaley gave the example of when he helped then-U.S. Rep. Bob Riley (R-Ashland) run for governor in 2002. Whaley said the campaign spent nearly $11 million to match the name identification of his opponents.
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"Tuberville, before he ever ran for office, already had that from being the football coach. So that's an advantage. He'd be able to raise money toe to toe with anybody in the state after he's kind of established now," Whaley said. "He's got a network around him to do that. Nobody else on the state level has that name ID, not even the sitting lieutenant governor. I don't personally know him, but they don't know who he is out there in the world.
He added, "If I didn't know, and I don't know, again, Ainsworth, and the difference between the two if I didn't have an opinion about their politics, just the thing I just described, if as a consultant, the mechanics alone, I would tell Ainsworth to go somewhere else… Sometimes, you just got to find a better lane to be in. And I think there's going to be a lot of that analysis going forward."
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