AL Senate Election: Sessions, Tuberville Face Off In GOP Primary

BIRMINGHAM, AL — Alabama voters will go to the polls on Tuesday to determine who will face Sen. Doug Jones in the November election for one of Alabama's U.S. Senate seats. Former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville faces former U.S. Senator and Attorney General Jeff Sessions in the Republican primary.

Tuberville has the backing of President Donald Trump, although both candidates have aligned themselves with Trump to gain support among GOP voters in Alabama. Sessions, who was picked by Trump to be his Attorney General, fell out of favor with the president, forcing Sessions' resignation in 2018.

Sessions was elected Alabama's Attorney General in 1994, but then decided to run for Senate in 1996 when Democrat Howell Heflin retired. Sessions served in the Senate until 2017 when Trump appointed him Attorney General.

Polls show Tuberville with the lead over Sessions, although he has refused repeatedly to debate Sessions leading up to the primary. Some polls show Tuberville with a lead of as many as 20 percentage points over the former senator.

Tuberville was the Auburn University head football coach from 1999 to 2008, and later coached at Texas Tech and the University of Cincinnati. He returned to Alabama in 2018 when he was fired at Cincinnati.

Voting Rules Amid The COVID-19 Pandemic

Polls will be open at 7 a.m. throughout the state, and are scheduled to close at 7 p.m. Find your polling location here.

Although Jefferson, Mobile and Madison counties have mandated face covering requirements, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement earlier this month that "state law does not allow for an individual’s qualification to vote to be contingent upon the wearing of a mask or face covering, respecting social distancing, using gloves, or having a temperature in a normal range."

Alabama also rejected the practice of curbside voting, as Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill challenged the lawsuit by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program on curbside voting in Supreme Court and won.

According to a report by NPR, the plaintiffs said they were disappointed by the decision, and will continue to pursue the ongoing litigation in federal court in Alabama for the November general election.