Last week, Tommy Tuberville’s campaign for governor issued a statement that it had “raised $2,064,723 during its first 24 hours, far surpassing its initial goal and shattering the previous Alabama record.”
Jackie Curtiss Cox, the campaign’s fundraiser, wrote that she had “never seen momentum like this in my more than ten years in Alabama politics.” Tuberville stated in a post on X that the initial round of fundraising was “just the beginning of our fight to put Alabama first.”
Cox also stressed that “these were not from PAC donations — every dollar came from small business owners, entrepreneurs, workers, and retirees.”
Mandatory campaign finance reports filed by the campaign, though, reveal the vast majority of these day one funds, over 90 percent, came from “major contributions:” donations of $20,000 or more. There is no legal maximum on how much someone can give to a principal campaign committee for state elected office in Alabama, but campaigns must report all major contributions within two business days.
The average major contribution for Tuberville’s first day was over $62,000, with the highest single contribution being a $175,000 donation from one Chad Witcher. The per capita income in Alabama, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, is $34,835, around half of that average.
“It turns out Alabama business owners have a vested interest in who their next governor is — go figure,” Mallory Jaspers, the communications director for Tuberville’s campaign Coach for Governor, wrote in a statement to APR.
“The only story here is that Coach Tuberville’s campaign is shattering Alabama’s previous fundraising records,” she continued. “Coach Tuberville is thankful for every single dollar he has received from friends, business owners, and individuals from across the state and looks forward to becoming Alabama’s next governor.”
Over a third of the major contributions Tuberville’s campaign received on May 27 came directly from businesses, not individuals. And some of the companies and individuals that have donated to Tuberville’s campaign regularly benefit from state government contracts.
In 2022, Caddell Construction, which donated $25,000, was awarded the $623 million contract to build the new “mega prison” in Elmore County, a project whose cost has only grown over the last couple years.
Prison healthcare company NaphCare also donated $100,000 to Tuberville’s campaign. NaphCare does not appear to have any current contracts with Alabama’s state government following a 2003 lawsuit, but regularly contracts with several other state governments.
Limestone Building Group, which donated $10,000 on May 30, is currently in the process of building a multi-purpose building for the Limestone Correctional Facility, the largest state prison currently operating.
While a few of the biggest donations Tuberville has received were from businesses, including ones without obvious ties to Alabama’s state government, the majority of major contributions were still from wealthy individual donors.
Some of these individual donors, though, are the owners or leaders of businesses that receive public contracts. Allen Harris, CEO of Bailey-Harris Construction, donated $25,000 to Tuberville’s campaign. Bailey-Harris Construction’s public list of projects shows the company is regularly awarded construction contracts for projects on the campuses of Alabama’s public universities, primarily Auburn University and the University of Alabama.
Another man who contributed $50,000, Jordan F. Vaughn, is a doctor who specializes in treating “vaccine-injured patients or those experiencing Long COVID.”
Vaughn cohosts a podcast every Tuesday, “America Out Loud PULSE,” for conspiracy website America Out Loud News, where he and his cohost sing the praises of Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and claim COVID-19 vaccines cause cancer.
In addition to Vaughn’s podcast, the site also publishes debates about whether the Twin Towers should have collapsed, arguments that the government manufactures extreme weather events, and tales of telepathy among nonverbal autistic children.
In an email to APR, Vaughn explained he “donated to Tommy Tuberville’s campaign because I wholeheartedly agree with his views and values.” He did not directly answer a question about whether his views on vaccines contributed to his decision to donate.
According to the monthly campaign finance report Tuberville filed yesterday, the campaign ended May with a balance of $3,051,735.91. So far the campaign has only reported spending $6,540.64 on administrative payments to Republican fundraising platform WinRed and fundraising expenditures charged by “full-service marketing and creative agency” TAG LLC.
