Sen. Tommy Tuberville tells Alabamians that a few more weeks of higher pump prices is worth the push to break Iran's regime, while Democratic rival Doug Jones demands a 60-day state fuel tax holiday.
Alabama's Republican nominee for governor is asking voters to accept a few more weeks of pain at the pump, arguing that the payoff from breaking Iran's regime is worth the strain on household budgets -- and he says Alabama drivers are ready to absorb it.
U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville made the case on a call with reporters as fuel costs climbed nationwide during the conflict with Iran, then repeated it in a television interview that pushed the price of gasoline to the center of the state's governor's race.
"If we have the opportunity to bring down the regime in Iran and be able to help stop terrorism in this country, it will be worth a few weeks of higher prices," Tuberville said.
His Democratic opponent, former U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, answered within hours, accusing Tuberville of shrugging off the squeeze on farmers, truckers and shrimpers and renewing a demand that Alabama suspend its fuel taxes for 60 days.
Tuberville, who is balancing his Senate duties with a statewide campaign, said the speed of the price spike caught him off guard.
"Now, I can't believe it went up this fast, because we have oil reserves. We have things all over the world," he said, suggesting financial markets had amplified the move. "At the end of the day, we've got to get this war over with. We've got to get the Strait of Hormuz open."
He noted the disruption reaches well beyond crude oil. Fertilizer shipments bound for American farms have been caught in the same bottleneck, a problem he said compounds the cost pressure on growers in the middle of harvest season.
"Everybody's impacted," he said. "I worry about everybody across the country. I worry about people in Alabama. I worry about our farmers."
Tuberville also placed the current spike in the context of the past two administrations, arguing prices had fallen so far under President Donald Trump that drivers had been "spoiled," and that the Obama years saw oil trade near $100 a barrel for long stretches without a comparable outcry. He called Trump "the oil president of the world" and predicted the crunch would ease as the conflict narrows.
Asked on CNN how rising prices were affecting his constituents, Tuberville said Alabamians have weathered volatility before and understand that fuel markets move in cycles. Pressed on whether they would tolerate higher costs, he answered directly: "Yeah, they're, yeah, sure they are."
He tied that patience to the state's backing for Trump, saying Alabama voters had given the president an opportunity to return to office and understood the stakes of the confrontation with Tehran.
Regular unleaded in Alabama has hovered near $3.25 a gallon, and the national picture is harsher for the businesses that run on diesel. The conflict has driven diesel to record levels across the country, raising the cost of moving freight, harvesting crops and keeping fishing boats on the water.
Jones built his response around exactly that audience. He said the voters he meets while traveling the state are not asking for patience.
"Once again, Tommy Tuberville is showing us just how out of touch he is with voters in Alabama," Jones said. "Farmers are trying to get their crops harvested. Truckers are trying to keep their rigs running. Shrimpers are trying to keep their boats out on the water. They need relief, not somebody telling them they'll just deal with it."
Jones renewed his call for Gov. Kay Ivey and the Alabama Legislature to suspend the state's 30-cent gasoline tax and 31-cent diesel tax for 60 days, a pause he said would return more than $100 million to Alabama families. He first proposed the idea in March, when fuel prices were already climbing.
Fuel is only one front in the affordability argument. Tuberville has made energy costs a central plank of his campaign, telling a Tuscaloosa radio audience he has already delivered a message to the state's utilities.
"One thing a governor can do is not drive up the prices of our electricity. I've already told our power people in our state that we're going to freeze prices for four years," he said.
He described data centers as an inevitability rather than a threat, saying the decision to host them belongs to counties, cities and mayors who weigh the tradeoffs locally. His promise, he said, is that residential ratepayers will not subsidize the build-out.
"We're not going to allow data centers to come in and manipulate our electricity. If we've got it, we'll give it to them. If not, we won't," Tuberville said.
The Alabama Public Service Commission approved a two-year electricity rate freeze proposed by Alabama Power in December 2025, a step Tuberville has treated as a starting point rather than a finish line. In Washington, he has backed ratepayer protections meant to make large power users cover their own share of grid costs instead of passing them along to households.
The pledge lands in a state already wrestling with how quickly to absorb the power demands of artificial intelligence. Utilities across the South have warned that serving new data center loads requires new generation, and the question of who pays for it has become a live political issue from the Public Service Commission to Congress.
The exchange hands both campaigns a clean contrast heading into the general election. Tuberville is asking voters to weigh a temporary rise in fuel costs against a strategic win overseas. Jones is asking them to weigh it against this month's diesel and grocery bills.
Two variables will decide which argument lands. The first is the Strait of Hormuz. A reopening would drain much of the urgency from the price story within days, while a prolonged closure would keep fuel costs in the headlines through Election Day.
The second is whether Washington moves on energy prices in the meantime. Fresh sanctions, reserve releases or a negotiated off-ramp with Tehran would each change the terrain the two candidates are fighting on.
Tuberville's dual role adds another wrinkle. He has kept his Senate seat and his committee work while running, which gives him a national platform on energy and defense but also ties him to decisions in Washington that voters may not separate from the ballot in front of them.
For now, Alabama's race has become a test of a broader Republican bet -- that voters will trade short-term cost pain for a harder line abroad -- and both candidates are treating the pump as the place where that bet gets settled.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville tells Alabamians that a few more weeks of higher pump prices is worth the push to break Iran's regime, while Democratic rival Doug Jones demands a 60-day state fuel tax holiday.
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