Nick Saban brought six national titles to the state of Alabama as the head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide. And if he wanted to, it sounds like he would be very successful in serving the state in a different way – as a politician.
According to some poll numbers obtained by Alex Kirshner of Slate.com, Nick Saban would have a very real chance of beating current Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville if he were to run against him as a Democrat.
“Over two weeks in late January, pollsters from the market research firm YouGov surveyed 532 registered voters in Alabama and found Saban narrowly leading Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville, himself a former college football coach at Auburn, in a hypothetical matchup for Senate in 2026. The polling group, which shared its data with Slate, found Saban leading with 42 percent of the vote to 39 percent. The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 4.9 percent, meaning it’s best to think of Saban and Tuberville as tied, the pollster said,” Kirshner wrote for Slate.
As Kirshner points out, Saban has a far better chance of beating Tuberville than any other Democrat who could choose to run against him.
“Saban’s competitive posture against Tuberville is in stark contrast to how other Democrats fare,” Kirshner wrote. “Former Sen. Doug Jones trails Tuberville 52 percent to 27 percent, a more expansive margin than Tuberville’s 60–40 win over Jones in their 2020 race. (Jones was quite popular in Alabama for a Democrat, but to win his seat, he needed to run against an accused sexual abuser, Roy Moore.) YouGov also polled Tuberville against a “generic Democrat” and found the Republican leading with 49 percent of the projected vote to the generic Dem’s 32 percent. Only Saban was competitive. No candidates have yet announced a run to challenge Tuberville.”
Obviously, Saban has given no indication that he even wants to pursue a career in politics as he steps into a new role in media as a college football analyst on ESPN’s College GameDay. But it’s pretty clear that if he wanted to step into politics, the Democrats would gladly have him.
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