Opinion Tommy Tuberville is governor and you have some choices to make

When Tommy Tuberville, the governor-elect of Alabama, strolled onto the stage at his campaign watch party on Tuesday night to declare victory and talk about his plans for the future, there was an expectation of gloating.

There was an expectation that Tuberville, now assured of the governor’s mansion, would talk about wokeness and liberals and how half the country has lost its way. There was an expectation that his speech would be about division and power.

Instead, it was mostly about coming together and helping people.

The guy talked about loving each other and being a governor for everyone and fixing real, actual problems. He mentioned the Black Belt. He talked about aiding working moms. He said he wants to help the nurses in rural hospitals.

“I want to help everyone,” Tuberville said. “I only care that you’re willing to roll up your sleeves and make Alabama better.”

Honestly, after watching five hours of Democrats winning over and over again, I thought maybe I was hallucinating. That maybe I was just hearing this populist—damn near progressive—speech because it’s what my brain wanted to hear.

But no, it was Tuberville, standing there with confetti in his hair, saying the word government in that odd way he says it—“gub-ment”—and talking about raising household income levels for everyone.

“When Mercedes came to Alabama in 1993, we were ranked 44th in household income,” he said. “Now, 33 years later, we’re still ranked 44th. What good are ribbon cuttings if we’re just barely holding on?”

I felt like … well, did you ever see that “Black Jeopardy” sketch on “Saturday Night Live” in which Tom Hanks plays the MAGA character who’s somehow wandered into the game, wearing the red hat and sporting a goatee? And everyone is really skeptical about the whole thing, but then he answers a question correctly and Kenan Thompson, stunned, screams out, “YES!”

That’s what it felt like.

Because I’ve written whole columns on the insanity of this state having an entire auto industry and so many people still so broke, even in the communities that surround those factories. How is that possible, unless someone somewhere isn’t making sure Alabamians from all walks of life are getting a fair shake out of these deals?

Speaking of not getting a fair shake, Tuberville also pointed out that “we ask the poorest of this state to pay the highest utility bills—why do we do that?”

YES! Why do we do that?

I’d really like the governor to get to the bottom of that and fix it, please.

“Broadband in every county, because we’ve been talking about it since I was a coach here 16 years ago.”

YES! The day someone examines the return on the many, many millions of dollars paid out in grant money to run high-speed internet lines around the state is the day a lot of people get nervous. Actually finishing this seemingly endless job would certainly be nice.

Look, not all of what Tuberville said was great. He took some shots, talked about Trump, threatened to deploy the National Guard in Montgomery (although there was an “if I have to” with it) and wasn’t exactly eloquent in his delivery. There was also the fact that, as I pointed out when writing about his “Playbook” policy manual, he’s a bit short on the details of how he’ll do a lot of this stuff—like how he plans to get all of this done and cut taxes.

I mean, I want to believe that he can cut the grocery tax and property taxes and insurance premiums while also saving rural hospitals and providing child care assistance and providing more resources for middle schoolers. But I’m also a person who is a bit skeptical about it.

As I said about the “Playbook,” though, maybe we can all acknowledge that the intent to do good things is a nice start. If we can at least agree on which problems to focus on—and that those problems aren’t transgender athletes or too much wokeness in schools or library books—then we can actually make a little progress. And since none of that BS was in Tuberville’s “Playbook” or his victory speech, maybe we can count that as a really good start.

There’s also this other thing. Tuberville repeated quite a few times—as he’s done throughout the campaign—that he’s not running for governor for himself, that he’s doing it for future generations. And Tuesday evening, as he spoke, his most genuine words, at least in my opinion, came whenever he referenced his children and grandchildren. And he said he was doing this for them.

For me, someone who spends more hours than I care to admit worrying about that future for my daughter, that’s a very relatable idea. It’s something that I understand completely, and it’s something that I can believe is truly a motivating factor. It gives a lot of what he says a ring of truth.

So maybe we all do exactly what Tuberville suggested. We give him a chance and hold him accountable. We keep score. And we keep pushing him to fulfill these promises that he’s making—to make life better for ALL Alabamians. To address the known problems. To cut the corruption and waste in state government. To build better roads and provide better jobs. To cut the taxes for working families and lower the costs of just living.

The guy is going to be governor. Seems to me we have two choices. We can sit on the sidelines and throw rocks at him for the next four years.

Or we can help get some of this stuff done.