U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville officially launched his campaign for governor on Tuesday, ending months of speculation and starting as a strong favorite in next year’s race.

If the former Auburn football coach does become governor, he would be the first person born outside Alabama elected to the state’s highest office since before America entered World War II.

Tuberville, 70, was born in Camden, Ark., in 1954.

Alabama has not elected anyone born outside the state since 1938. In the years that followed, two men who were not born here have held the office, though neither was elected governor.

The last Alabama governor not born in the state was a lieutenant governor who held the office for 32 days while the elected governor was unable to serve.

Jere Beasley was born in Tyler, Texas, and raised in Clayton in Barbour County, according to the Encyclopedia of Alabama.

Beasley was lieutenant governor when Gov. George C. Wallace was severely wounded in an assassination attempt while campaigning for president in Maryland in May 1972.

Wallace was not able to return to the state until July. The state constitution mandated that if the governor was out of state for 20 days, the lieutenant governor assumed the top office.

Beasley was governor from June 5, 1972 to July 7, 1972.

Lt. Gov. Albert Brewer, born in Bethel Springs, Tenn. in 1928, became Alabama’s governor when Lurleen Wallace died of cancer in 1968, just 16 months into her term.

Brewer’s family moved to Decatur when he was a child, according to the Encyclopedia of Alabama.

Brewer served 33 months in office and lost the 1970 election to George C. Wallace.

The last elected Alabama governor not born in the state was Frank M. Dixon, who served from 1939-1943.

Dixon was born in Oakland, Calif., in 1892 and grew up in Virginia, according to the Encyclopedia of Alabama.

Dixon earned a law degree from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville in 1916, married Juliet Perry of Greene County, Ala., and moved to Birmingham to practice law.

Dixon was shot down over France in World War I and lost his right leg. After the war, his active role in veterans organizations, and the Democratic Party, helped him win the 1938 election.

Since 1900, Alabama voters have elected two other governors who were born outside the state.

William J. Samford, who was governor from December 1900 until his death in June 1901, was born in Greenville, Ga., in 1844.

Samford’s family moved to Alabama two years later.

Thomas E. Kilby, who was governor from 1919-1923, was born in Lebanon, Tenn., in 1865.

In 1889, Kilby started a successful business career in Alabama when he went to work for the Georgia-Pacific railroad in Anniston, the Encyclopedia of Alabama says.

While there is no legal requirement that for a governor to be born in Alabama, there is a residency requirement that Tuberville will face questions about.

Section 117 of the Alabama Constitution says both the lieutenant governor and the governor must be residents of the state “at least seven years next before the date of their election.”

Alabama Democratic Party Chairman Randy Kelley said Tuesday that the party will challenge Tuberville’s eligibility.

Tuberville told The Associated Press he meets the residency requirements.

“They’ve been bringing that up. It won’t be a problem. … A lot of other people have houses down there (Florida), but this is my home,” he said of Auburn.

Tuberville graduated from high school in Arkansas in 1972 and attended Southern State College, now Southern Arkansas University, where he played football and golf and earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education.

Tuberville started his coaching career as a high school coach in Arkansas and later worked as a college assistant coach at Arkansas State, the University of Miami, and Texas A&M.

He was named head coach at Ole Miss in 1995 and left after the 1998 season to accept the head coaching job at Auburn, a job he would hold until 2008.

Tuberville later was head coach at Texas Tech and the University of Cincinnati. He retired from coaching at the 2016 season.

In 2017, Tuberville joined ESPN as a college football color analyst and recorded a promotional video from his home in Santa Rosa Beach, Fla., saying that was his chosen home for retirement.

Tuberville and his wife Suzanne still own two homes in Santa Rosa Beach, al.com reported.

According to reporting by Kyle Whitmire of al.com, Tuberville’s wife Suzanne and his son Tucker bought a home in Auburn in 2017 and claimed a homestead exemption there in 2018.

Tuberville and Suzanne both voted in Walton County, Fla., in 2018.

In March 2019, Tuberville registered to vote in Alabama, using the address of the home in Auburn. Tuberville announced his run for the U.S. Senate the next month, a race he would win in 2020.

In May, 2024, Tommy Tuberville was added to the deed on the Auburn house and his son Tucker’s name was removed. Tuberville and Suzanne both claimed a homestead exemption.

That home is valued at $271,000, while Tuberville’s beach house in Florida is valued at about $5 million, al.com reported.

When Tuberville ran for the Senate in 2020, former Sen. Jeff Sessions, his primary runoff opponent, raised the residency issue, calling Tuberville a “Florida man.”

But the Senate has no seven-year residency requirement and Sessions’ claims did not hurt Tuberville, who won the primary decisively.

In March this year, Tuberville dismissed concerns about the residency requirement after state Sen. Sam Givhan, R-Huntsville, brought it up during a radio interview.

“Well, I’ve been a United States Senator representing the state of Alabama for the last four years, with two more years remaining,” Tuberville said.

“There’s no problem with that. We looked at that six, seven years ago. It’s just people that are probably, maybe, wanting to run for governor. Hey, if you want to run, go run on your abilities. Don’t try to trick somebody else. There’s nothing to that.”