Tommy Tuberville: 'God sent Donald Trump to us'

Brian Lyman | Montgomery Advertiser

Tommy Tuberville's speech to the Alabama Farmers Federation on Monday evening sounded biblical — both in its invocation of hope and doom and in its speaker's identification of divine choices.

"I do believe today that God sent Donald Trump to us," the Republican Senate candidate and former Auburn football coach said at the annual meeting of the group. "He’s the only thing standing between socialism in this country. We can’t let that happen. We cannot let it happen."

Speaking for about 7 minutes, Tuberville hit a number of different issues, from public education to political correctness to his displeasure at miniature horses on airplanes. But he tended to speak more about putting religion, and specifically Christianity, in the public sphere.

"We're losing Christianity in this country," he said. "We've got to get it back. But it starts by teaching it. We should teach all religions in our schools. We've definitely got to get God back in our schools."

Later, Tuberville said: "I taught blocking and tackling for 40 years. If you don’t teach blocking and tackling, you can’t win. If we don’t teach God and family in education, we’re not going to win. It’s going to be over."

According to the Pew Research Center, about 65% of Americans identify as Christian, though that number has fallen about 12% over the last decade.

The brief 7-minute speech was in-line with other Republican candidates' strong identification with the president, who remains popular in Alabama. Tuberville also mixed messages of hope with vague invocations of approaching disaster, saying he was "scared to death" and afraid for his children and grandchildren.

"We've lost it," he said. "We've lost the edge in this country. It's still a great country. If it wasn't a great country and we didn't have a great Constitution and laws, it'd already be gone. We made it 243 years and we're going to make it a lot longer. And we're going to make it stronger."

Tuberville won the Alabama Farmers Federation's endorsement in September. The Senate race is the former Auburn football coach's first political campaign, though he flirted running for Alabama governor in 2018.

U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne; Rep. Arnold Mooney; former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, and former U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions are also seeking the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. The primary is in March. If no candidate gets a majority, the top two finishers will head to a runoff in April.

Tuberville, like other Republicans, has stressed his loyalty to President Donald Trump throughout the campaign, and on Monday repeatedly invoked "The Swamp" and attacked the impeachment investigation of Trump over the withholding of foreign aid to Ukraine for politically embarrassing information on opponents.

In October, he attacked Sessions for recusing himself from the investigation of the Trump campaign's ties with Russia. Sessions, an early supporter of Trump, met with Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak during the campaign.

"Jeff Sessions had a chance to stand and defend the President and he failed,” Tuberville said.

More: As Jeff Sessions mulls Alabama Senate run, some campaigns stress loyalty to Trump

Tuberville did not mention any of his Republican opponents or Democratic U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, the incumbent, during his speech.

The winner on the Republican side will face Jones in the general election.

Gov. Kay Ivey spoke briefly Monday night, thanking the organization for their support for the Rebuild Alabama program. The bill will raise the state's gas tax by 10 cents a gallon over the next few years, to fund road maintenance and repair in the state.

"We would not be successful with that effort if it were not for a strong organization like yours," she said.

Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Brian Lyman at 334-240-0185 or blyman@gannett.com.