There’s a new Republican candidate in the race to succeed Tommy Tuberville in the U.S. Senate.
Morgan Murphy, a Birmingham native and captain in the U.S. Navy reserve who has worked for the Trump administration and as national security advisor to Tuberville, announced he is running for the seat.
“The greatest honor of my career has been working for President Trump in both his first and second terms,” Murphy said on his campaign website.
Murphy said Tuberville is one of the strongest “America First” voices in the Senate and that his successor will play a crucial role.
“Others talk, but Coach actually fights for Alabama’s conservative values. I’m running because we can’t let just any ‘Republican’ take his seat,” Murphy said.
Murphy said he worked with Tuberville on opposing President Biden’s policies, including the Pentagon policy covering travel costs for service members and their dependents who crossed state lines for abortions.
In 2023, Tuberville used his Senate seat to protest the policy by putting a hold on military promotions that lasted 10 months, affecting 447 promotions.
The Trump administration reversed the policy in January.
During the first Trump term, Murphy served in 2020 as an advisor and press secretary to Defense Secretary Christopher Miller and Deputy Secretary of Defense Kash Patel, Murphy said.
During Trump’s second term this year, Murphy was as advisor to the Special Presidential Envoy for Ukraine, Ret. Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg. Murphy said he deeply admired Trump’s efforts to stop the war in Ukraine.
Murphy graduated from Mountain Brook High School in 1990 and from Birmingham-Southern College in 1994, according to his campaign website.
He lives in the Birmingham area with his son.
“Although I’ve worked and traveled around the world, my heart belongs to the red clay dirt of my home state,” Murphy said on his website.
“Twenty years ago, I bought a house and moved just down the street from where I grew up. Why? I wanted my son to know and be steeped in the old-fashioned values that still beat strongly in the Heart of Dixie.”
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, U.S. Rep. Barry Moore of Enterprise, and former Navy SEAL Jared Hudson are also running for Tuberville’s Senate seat.
Tuberville is running for governor.
The primary is May 19, 2026.
This story was edited after publication to change the headline to remove a reference to Murphy being behind the Tuberville hold on military promotions.
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