10/14/2026
JONES VS. TUBERVILLE: DIFFERENT VISIONS
🗳️ Democrat Doug Jones and Republican Tommy Tuberville are offering Alabama voters substantially different priorities in the Nov. 3 election for governor.
📍 Jones is a former U.S. senator, while Tuberville currently represents Alabama in the U.S. Senate. Their campaigns present sharply different approaches to state government, healthcare, education, taxes, data centers, social issues and economic development.
Jones, a Birmingham-area attorney, previously served as U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama and represented Alabama in the U.S. Senate from 2018 to 2021.
His career includes helping prosecute two former Ku Klux Klan members for their roles in the 1963 Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing. Jones was cross-designated as lead prosecutor in the state trials of Thomas Blanton Jr. and Bobby Frank Cherry.
Tuberville is a former college football coach who led programs at Ole Miss, Auburn, Texas Tech and Cincinnati before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2020.
His campaign emphasizes his coaching career, conservative Senate record and support for President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda.
COST OF LIVING AND TAXES
Jones’ campaign puts affordability near the center of his platform.
His plan calls for fully eliminating Alabama’s grocery tax, temporarily suspending the state gasoline tax when prices spike, raising wages including the minimum wage, renewing the state’s no-tax-on-overtime policy and creating a state Earned Income Tax Credit.
Tuberville’s campaign approaches affordability primarily through lower taxes, reduced government spending and less regulation.
His Alabama First Agenda says he would further reduce taxes, eliminate government waste, cut red tape and work with Trump to bring additional manufacturing jobs to Alabama.
JOBS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Jones’ campaign says economic development should produce jobs that allow Alabamians to remain in their communities.
His proposals include expanding childcare, providing free community college for adults without credentials, strengthening apprenticeship incentives and changing occupational licensing requirements that can create barriers to employment.
Tuberville emphasizes lower taxes, manufacturing, agriculture and Alabama’s defense and aerospace sectors.
His campaign says he would work with the Trump administration to attract manufacturing and additional space and defense investment to Alabama.
HEALTHCARE
Jones says expanding Medicaid would be among his first actions as governor.
His campaign says expansion would cover more than 154,000 working Alabamians, strengthen rural healthcare and reduce uncompensated care.
Tuberville’s Alabama First Agenda does not propose Medicaid expansion.
His campaign instead highlights his Senate record on healthcare, including its claim that he secured $500 million for Alabama rural hospitals, along with his emphasis on veterans receiving adequate care and benefits.
EDUCATION
Tuberville makes school choice a major part of his campaign.
His campaign supports public, private, charter, magnet and home schools and says parents should control their children’s educational choices. Tuberville also says he wants to protect and expand school choice under Alabama’s CHOOSE Act.
He also opposes Critical Race Theory and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs in government and schools.
Jones takes a substantially different approach.
His campaign calls for free community college for adults without credentials and expanded workforce training.
Jones now says he wants to phase out the CHOOSE Act rather than eliminate it immediately. Under the plan he described Oct. 13, no new students would enter the program, but students already receiving funding could continue through graduation. He also said he would preserve the program’s homeschooling provisions.
Jones argues state education dollars should be concentrated on public schools and says the CHOOSE Act threatens to weaken Alabama’s public education system.
DATA CENTERS
Data centers provide one of the clearest policy differences between the candidates.
Jones proposes a one-year moratorium on new state and local approvals for AI data centers larger than 20 megawatts while Alabama develops statewide safeguards.
His campaign calls for banning nondisclosure agreements between developers and governments or utilities, requiring public notice and hearings, making economic and environmental studies public, disclosing tax incentives and giving state and local governments authority to impose taxes or fees intended to ensure communities receive financial benefits.
Jones says the moratorium would apply to new approvals and would not cancel signed projects.
Tuberville opposes a moratorium and says Alabama should remain open to data-center investment, but under conditions.
His campaign says communities should have a say, data centers should pay taxes and the infrastructure costs they create, taxpayers should not subsidize the projects, and facilities should not take needed power or water away from Alabama residents.
Tuberville says companies willing to meet those conditions should be welcomed to invest in Alabama.
Tuberville also has called for a four-year freeze on electricity rates amid concerns about growing power demand.
GOVERNMENT AND VOTING
Jones is making changes to state government another major part of his campaign.
His proposals include banning elected officials from trading individual stocks while in office, establishing a citizen-led initiative and referendum process, creating early voting and giving local communities greater authority over local matters.
Jones also supports eliminating straight-ticket voting.
Tuberville’s Alabama First Agenda does not contain a comparable package of election or state-government structural changes.
ABORTION, IVF AND SOCIAL ISSUES
Tuberville’s campaign strongly emphasizes opposition to abortion.
His campaign says no taxpayer money should pay for abortions and describes Tuberville as strongly anti-abortion.
Tuberville’s gubernatorial campaign also opposes DEI programs, Critical Race Theory and transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.
Jones’ campaign says he supports protecting access to IVF and contraception.
His gubernatorial platform gives those issues less emphasis than Tuberville’s campaign and instead focuses more heavily on healthcare, affordability and changes to state government.
GUNS
Tuberville’s campaign explicitly emphasizes Second Amendment rights.
His Alabama First Agenda says he opposes additional restrictions on gun ownership and views gun ownership as a constitutional right of self-defense.
Gun policy is not among the major proposals highlighted on Jones’ current gubernatorial priorities page.
IMMIGRATION AND LAW ENFORCEMENT
Tuberville says he would work with Trump on immigration enforcement and deporting immigrants in the country illegally who commit crimes.
His campaign also emphasizes support for law enforcement.
Immigration is not among the principal policy areas outlined on Jones’ current gubernatorial priorities page.
FARMERS, DEFENSE AND VETERANS
Tuberville’s campaign places particular emphasis on agriculture, defense and veterans.
He supports Trump’s trade policies and says Alabama farmers need relief from high input costs, low commodity prices and high interest rates.
Tuberville also says he would work to expand Alabama’s defense and aerospace industries and improve services and benefits for veterans.
Jones’ campaign discusses veterans and workforce issues, but agriculture and defense are not among the major standalone proposals on his current priorities page.
LOTTERY
Jones supports putting a state lottery before Alabama voters.
His campaign says voters should decide whether Alabama creates a lottery and says possible uses of the revenue include education, healthcare and infrastructure.
Tuberville’s current Alabama First Agenda does not list a position on a state lottery.
HOUSING
Jones’ campaign calls for increasing Alabama’s supply of affordable housing through partnerships with local communities and pairing housing policies with higher wages and expanded economic opportunity.
Tuberville’s current Alabama First Agenda does not include a separate affordable-housing proposal.
PRISONS
Jones proposes significant changes to Alabama’s prison system.
His campaign calls for independent oversight, public disclosure of major prison contracts and change orders, stronger staffing standards, outside investigation of serious misconduct and greater transparency over prison construction and spending.
Tuberville’s current Alabama First Agenda does not include a detailed prison-reform proposal.
THE CHOICE
The campaigns are emphasizing distinctly different approaches to governing Alabama.
Tuberville is emphasizing lower taxes, less government spending, manufacturing growth, school choice, support for Trump, immigration enforcement, gun rights, opposition to abortion, conservative positions on social issues, agriculture, defense and veterans.
Jones is emphasizing Medicaid expansion, lower household costs, higher wages, a temporary moratorium on new large AI data-center approvals, affordable housing, prison reform, a state lottery and changes to government and election law.
The candidates also differ sharply on data centers and education. Jones wants a temporary halt to new large data-center approvals and now says he would phase out the CHOOSE Act while allowing current participants to continue through graduation. Tuberville wants data-center development to continue under stricter conditions and supports protecting and expanding school choice.
In several areas, the distinction is not simply that Jones and Tuberville disagree. Their campaigns also identify different issues as priorities for Alabama’s next governor.
NOTE: The principal sources of information for this story are Doug Jones’ current campaign biography, priorities and detailed policy pages and Tommy Tuberville’s current campaign biography, Alabama First Agenda, data-center policy and campaign updates.
