Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl would carry advantages in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate and at least one big hurdle, analysts say.
Pearl has not said he is running for Alabama’s open seat for the Senate but has not publicly denied it during weeks of media speculation.
That speculation has been fueled, in part, by Pearl’s public statements and social media posts, especially his support for Israel and for President Donald Trump.
Pearl has 174,000 followers on X and his account has more posts and reposts about politics than basketball.
AL.com has reached out to Pearl to ask whether he is considering a Senate run but has not received a response.
On the podcast “One Jewish State” on Tuesday, Pearl was asked by former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman if he was considering running.
“Mr. Ambassador, there is no news to be made,” Pearl replied. “You know I love my country and this is the greatest country in the world.”
But Pearl did not seem to fully close the door on running for office saying there were many grave issues facing the nation, including immigration and antisemitism.
“I care about these issues but I love Auburn and I love being Auburn’s basketball coach.”
Outsiders have an advantage
Lori Owens, a political science professor at Jacksonville State University, said Pearl would have some important factors on his side.
“The truth of the matter is this business is about name identification,” Owens said.
“If you’ve already got name ID, you already have an edge, if you will, if you’re running for office.”
Owens said Pearl, who has built Auburn men’s basketball into a national power during 11 years as coach, is probably better known by Alabama voters than Attorney General Steve Marshall, the likely frontrunner among Republican candidates.
“If you’re an outsider, the voters seem to have a taste right now for people that they view that are political outsiders because they think the career politicians are part of the problem,” said Owens, who holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Alabama.
“It’s easy to run as a newcomer if you don’t have a record. Because nobody has anything that they can use against you. You get a chance to be fresh and new and no record one time, if you win.”
Contributions to Democrats could haunt Pearl
The race is for the seat that Sen. Tommy Tuberville is leaving to run for governor.
Tuberville rode his name recognition built by a decade as Auburn’s football coach, plus an alliance with President Trump, to win the seat during his first run for public office in 2020.
Tuberville has said he would discourage Pearl from a Senate run.
“I wouldn’t let him do it because he did such a good job at Auburn,” he told Semafor. “We need him there.”
Marshall, who has won two statewide elections for attorney general, announced his run for the Senate in May.
Jared Hudson, a former Navy Seal who ran for Jefferson County sheriff in 2022, announced his candidacy the day before Marshall.
Democrats who are running 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.
For Pearl, one major hurdle is an Alabama Republican Party prohibition on political donations to candidates from opposing parties.
In 2024, Pearl gave $1,000 to Shomari Figures, the Democratic nominee and eventual winner in Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District, a contribution earmarked by the American Israeli Public Affairs political action committee.
Pearl also gave $1,000 to U.S. Rep. Don Davis, a Democrat from North Carolina who has spoken out in support of Israel.
Federal Election Commission records show that Pearl gave even more to Republican causes last year — $25,000 to the Republican Jewish Victory Coalition (RJC) fund, and $500 to U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers of Saks, a Republican who represents Alabama’s 3rd District.
But the state Republican Party bylaws say that any person who supports or donates to an opposing party candidate will be denied access to the state GOP ballot for six years.
It takes a vote by three-fourths of the state Republican Party’s Steering Committee or Candidate Committee to waive the prohibition.
Alabama Republican Party Chairman John Wahl has not responded to questions about how the party would respond if Pearl sought to qualify as a Republican, the most logical path to victory in a GOP-dominated state.
But Wahl, while not specifically mentioning Pearl, emphasized the importance of the bylaws in an interview on the Jeff Poor radio show in June.
Wahl said the rule is intended to make sure that only Republicans run in the Republican primary.
“Every candidate in the bylaws that has made one of these actions (support or donation to a Democrat) in the last six years is automatically denied ballot access,” Wahl said.
“They cannot even qualify as a Republican unless they get a waiver from either the county party or the state party with a three quarters vote.”
Steve Flowers, an author, political commentator, and former state lawmaker, doubts that the Republican Party would let Pearl on the ballot.
“They have sent him a message, a pretty adamant message, that his contribution to Shomari Figures and the other Democratic candidate that he gave to, although he gave it through a PAC, they’ve sent him a message that they’ve got that hard core rule and he would have a hard time getting around that,” Flowers said.
“So I don’t think that he can run.”
Jess Brown, a retired political science professor from Athens State University and longtime observer of state elections, said the Republican Party could risk isolating rank-and-file voters if it used the bylaws to keep Pearl off the ballot.
“The voters, they don’t buy into this thing of party voters demanding party loyalty,” Brown said. “That’s all this stuff that people get caught up in at these party meetings.
“But when you get out to Bubba and Bubbette at the barbecue, they don’t really cotton to that stuff. Their view is if you want to run for public office, go down and pay the qualifying fee and put your name on the ballot.
“They just don’t like party bosses who write rules to keep people off the ballot.”
In 1986, the Democratic Party, which then dominated the state, denied Charlie Graddick its nomination for governor after he won a close runoff, a decision that came in a dispute over cross-over votes by Republicans.
A three-judge federal court panel ruled that Graddick, then state attorney general, had violated the Voting Rights Act by trying to stop enforcement of the Democrats’ rule against Republicans voting in their primary.
They nominated Bill Baxley, who finished second.
The decision angered voters, who elected Republican longshot Guy Hunt over Baxley in the general election. Hunt was Alabama’s first GOP governor since Reconstruction.
“I just think they better tread lightly dealing with Coach Pearl if he decides to run for this job,” Brown said.
Brown, like Owens, said Tuberville would enter the race with the upper hand.
“Like Tuberville, he brings instant name ID in a way that no other candidate in the race – in fact I think I can safely say that not even Steve Marshall will have as much name ID right now as Bruce Pearl would,“ Brown said.
“While basketball is not football in Alabama – we’re not talking Kansas or North Carolina here – basketball is not football in our culture, his success, particularly in recent years has been so much that he’s definitely raised his profile in a state where I think it’s safe to say basketball is the second most popular sport among those who practice sports by watching TV.”
Brent Buchanan, founder and CEO of the polling and public relations firm Cygnal, said he has not seen any polling on Pearl.
“His donations to Democrats just last year could be problematic if money is spent informing GOP primary voters about it,” Buchanan said.
“However, he’s incredibly dynamic and could be a strong fundraiser.”
Flowers questions whether Pearl would give up his coaching job at Auburn, where he has established a consistent winner and earns more than $6 million a year.
“I don’t know him personally, but I can’t see him doing that,” Flowers said.
“The other thing, if he were to overcome the party hurdle, and run, I don’t see him as being as viable a candidate as some people do.”
Flowers believes that Pearl, who is outspoken about his faith and his Jewish heritage, would receive a lot of financial support from Jewish interest groups.
Flowers said he does not believes Pearl’s faith would be a detriment, but questions whether he would have appeal as a candidate identified mainly for his pro-Israel stance.
“He would be designated and it would become illuminated that he is a one-issue candidate because he would have a lot of out of state Jewish money in his campaign,” Flowers said. “I think that’s who is encouraging him to run.”
“I think he’s got some obstacles if he got over the hurdle of being able to run by the Republican Party. Which I don’t think he’s going to be able to do,” Flowers said.
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