Ken McFeeters, who ran for Congress in 2024 and is a past president of the Mid-Alabama Republican Club, announced Tuesday that he is running for the Republican nomination for governor.

McFeeters, 65, lives in Pelham and runs an insurance agency that he founded with his brother in 1981.

He is the second Republican candidate to enter the race, following Sen. Tommy Tuberville.

“The question we must ask ourselves is this,” McFeeters said in a press release.

“Can a candidate of the people — someone who will truly work for the interests of Alabama — defeat the establishment forces that have a stranglehold on our politics?”

McFeeters said Alabama needs a leader who is not tied to what he called the political class.

“For too long, the establishment has controlled key aspects of our lives: education, healthcare, money, banking, food production—none of it has been for the benefit of the people,” McFeeter said.

“It’s been about consolidating power for the elite. And they maintain this power by manipulating our elections, backing only candidates who will do their bidding, and ensuring that the system is rigged in their favor.”

McFeeters ran against U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer in the 6th congressional district last year.

He finished third in the primary, with 6% of the vote.

McFeeters said ran against Palmer to put a spotlight on what he considered important.

“From the get-go – I even told Palmer this – I know there’s no way I’ll beat you. I spent $25,000 of my own money and took zero contributions,” McFeeters said.

“I wanted a platform where I could talk about the things that I wanted to talk about that really matter to folks in Alabama that were not being talked about because of who controls the government and who controls the media,” McFeeters said.

McFeeters questioned Tuberville’s assertions that he meets the requirement in the Alabama constitution that the governor live in the state seven years before being elected.

“It’s time for a governor who isn’t part of the establishment, who doesn’t wear $3,000 suits or have a Florida tan paid for by insider trading and living outside Alabama,” McFeeters said.

“Alabama deserves better than a puppet of the globalists. We need a governor who will fight for the people, not for the money.”

Tuberville has dismissed claims that he does not fulfill that requirement. He said on Alabama Public Television’s Capitol Journal last week that he has lived in Alabama most of the last 25 years and that a challenge to his qualifications would be a waste of time.

McFeeters said that as governor, he would advocate for changes in public schools.

“Our education system is failing our children,” he said. “Rather than teaching critical thinking, values/virtues, or life skills, our schools are churning out obedient workers trained to follow orders, not lead. This system is intentionally designed to produce compliance, not creativity.”

McFeeters said he would bring in former military personnel to help restore order and discipline in schools.

He said Alabama needs to protect the resources that are necessary for independence, like family farms for food production, water, and power.

“If we lose the ability to feed ourselves, we lose our independence,” McFeeters said. “That’s why the establishment has been systematically eradicating family farms.

“We need to restore local food production, secure our water and power resources, and ensure that Alabama is independent from the globalist forces that seek to control us.”

During last year’s congressional race, McFeeters posted an AI-generated video that mimicked a Zoom call with President Trump praising McFeeters and calling Palmer a “weasel” and a “backstabbing worm.”

At the time, Palmer called the video “a desperate attempt by a candidate that has nothing to offer in this race.”

McFeeters said there was no intent to make anyone believe the video was real.

“Anyone who watched that would know it was tongue-in-cheek,” McFeeters said. “It was not real. It was done with a really low-quality AI that cost $14 or maybe $15.

“It was to use humor to illustrate a point. No one without an axe to grind would have considered that serious.”