It makes perfect sense, when you get right down to it.
Paul Finebaum running for the United States Senate? Why wouldn’t the entire state of Alabama get behind the notion of college football’s loudest mouthpiece heading to Washington?
Full disclosure: I have known Finebaum for going on 25 years now, going back to my days as a literal child running a sports section in Florence, Alabama. Finebaum ruled Alabama’s airwaves even back then, mixing in a healthy dose of guest high jinks (enter yours truly) with a sometimes-unhealthy level of caller hysteria.
Which is why Monday’s news, first reported by OutKick’s Clay Travis (I have history there, too, but that’s another column for another day…), that Finebaum is considering a run for the open Senate seat being vacated as Tommy Tuberville is running for governor… didn’t come as a real surprise.
Why not? Because Finebaum, among his myriad talents, is a master at the exact kind of theater that thrives in politics – both now and for all time. Now 70, the former sports columnist at a dying newspaper in Birmingham transformed into the Southeast’s most-influential sports voice by consistently and seamlessly identifying the moment and seizing on it.
Don’t believe me? Google Mike DuBose’s exit from coaching at Alabama. Or Mike Price’s tumultuous exit from the Crimson Tide. Or the poisoning of the Toomer’s Corner trees at Auburn. All 3 stories funneled directly through Finebaum’s microphone, along with thousands of others big and small.
Those all happened because not just because Finebaum has a sharp wit and keen eye for reporting, although both of those traits are true. But they also happened because Finebaum allowed people from all corners of fandom/lunacy to come and play on his airwaves. Heck, we detailed one of them – legendary caller Legend – right here on SDS just last year.
The success Finebaum grew from a single-station show to the Paul Finebaum Radio Network to an ESPN radio/television deal in 2013 made Finebaum a rich man – so much so that if this Senate run fails, he won’t be curbside shaking a can for spare change. But it also honed Finebaum’s prodigiously large ears into a tool that could become quite useful in the public service sector.
Finebaum told Travis that his political bent has never been a factor before this revelation, but that he was deeply affected by the Charlie Kirk assassination and found himself rethinking his own future.
“I spent 4 hours numb talking about things that didn’t matter to me. And it kept building throughout that weekend,” Finebaum said to OutKick. “I felt very empty doing what I was doing that day … It’s hard to describe, not being involved in politics, how that affected me and affected tens of millions of people all over this country. And it was an awakening.
“One or 2 people in Washington had reached out to me about whether I would be interested in politics, something I never thought about before. Something I didn’t really think possible,” Finebaum said. “I gave some thought to it as the weekend [after Kirk’s murder] unfolded and got a little bit more interested.”
And for as much as Finebaum has lived and thrived in the public space, no one has known until now what side of the political aisle he resided. Wonder no more, folks, as he would slide neatly into the spot being vacated by the GOP-affiliated former Auburn football coach.
“I’ve never said this before, but why am I going to hold this back?” Finebaum said. “I just moved and registered in Alabama, but I am a registered Republican in North Carolina as of this hour. And I was a registered Republican in Alabama before I moved.”
The qualifying deadline to run is in January 2026, so Finebaum doesn’t immediately have to decide if he will leave ESPN to run for office. Finebaum indicated that he would decide in the next month or 2 if leaving the microphone for the campaign trail is a reality.
Listen, I don’t have the first clue about the inner workings of Alabama politics to know if a Finebaum For Senate run would be a winner, nor do I know if Finebaum’s many detractors (which vary from week to week based on whether Auburn or Alabama loses and how…) but I do believe that Finebaum himself would likely be a winner in Washington.
“Alabama has always been the place I’ve felt the most welcome, that I’ve cared the most about the people,” Finebaum said. “I’ve spoken to people from Alabama for 35 years, and I feel there is a connection that is hard to explain.”
The reasoning is simple: Finebaum is a performer, and politics increasingly is about the performative arts. We have already seen 2 actors as presidents, professional wrestlers and action heroes as governors. Why not a sports talk show host for the Senate?
Vote now, vote often. Finebaum For Senate. It does have a ring to it…
An APSE national award-winning writer and editor, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. He also hosts Gulfshore Sports with David Wasson, weekdays from 3-5 pm across Southwest Florida and on FoxSportsFM.com. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.
