Alabama Governor 2026: the ads, and who's paying for them
Tommy Tuberville (Republican) and Doug Jones (Democrat) are the candidates for governor of Alabama in the November 3, 2026 general election. Semblen has analyzed 42 ads in this race; 27 used at least one manipulation technique, most often loaded language and name calling.
27 of 41 (66%) flagged · Loaded Language (22), Name Calling (17), Appeal to Prejudice (13)
YouTube
0 of 1 flagged
Reported Meta spend
$85,500–108,283 on all ads, $54,500–68,131 on flagged ads · Meta reports ranges; these are the sums of their ends
Example
“spreading lies” — Loaded Language, paid for by Doug For Alabama
· the flagged ad with the highest reported spend that shows the most common technique
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A small box with these findings and the newest ads, updated as new ads are analyzed. Free for newsrooms, blogs and campaigns alike; it links back here.
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Each side is the campaign plus the groups backing it. How a group is placed is explained below the table.
Side
Ads
With at least one technique
Most common
Tuberville (R)
31
22 of 31 (71%)
Loaded Language (18), Name Calling (13), Appeal to Prejudice (11)
Tuberville's campaign
5
5 of 5
Loaded Language (4), Appeal to Prejudice (3), Black-and-White Fallacy (3)
1 group backing Tuberville
26
17 of 26 (65%)
Loaded Language (14), Name Calling (11), Appeal to Fear (8)
Jones (D)
6
2 of 6
Loaded Language (2), Appeal to Fear (1), False Urgency (1)
All from the campaign; no ads here from groups placed on this side.
Not placed on a side (2 sponsors)
5
3 of 5
Name Calling (3), Appeal to Prejudice (2), Loaded Language (2)
Read this before comparing the sides. Ads that attack an opponent use these techniques far more often than ads that introduce a candidate, whoever runs them, so the side running more attack ads shows a higher share. A technique is about wording, not about whether an ad is true. These are online ads only (Meta and YouTube), not television.
How a group is placed: by its own filings with the Federal Election Commission. A group is with a candidate when it reported spending to support that candidate, or to oppose the other one in the general election. The parties' own committees are with their nominee. Spending against a candidate in a primary places a group nowhere, and neither does our reading of its ads: a group with no such filing is listed as not placed. The sponsor table gives the reason for each.
Decide what counts
Not everyone would call every technique manipulation. Untick the ones you'd call ordinary persuasion and the count updates.
64% of the 42 ads here use at least one of the techniques ticked below (27 ads).
Leaving out the softer ones (loaded language, glittering generalities, slogans, exaggeration, repetition): 64% of ads.
The words doing the work
The words that show up most in phrases our model flagged as loaded language or name calling in this race's ads, by number of ads.
liesin 4 ads· e.g. “Tommy's lies”, “lies about supporting veterans”
governmentin 3 ads· e.g. “make big government bigger”, “expand government control over your health care”
socialistin 3 ads· e.g. “Democrat Socialists”, “socialists”
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Money in this race
Candidates for governor report their fundraising to Alabama's state campaign-finance office, not the FEC. This page doesn't cover those reports yet, so it shows no money figures.
The ads
42 ads, newest first. Video transcripts are shown as the model read them, without caption cues like [music].
Showing the 5 ads paid for by TUBERVILLE FOR GOVERNOR INC. Show all 42 ads
Paid for by TUBERVILLE FOR GOVERNOR INCfrom 2026-10-062 variantsspend $100–2982,000–3,098 impressions
Gender confusion is a mental illness, not an identity. Boys cannot become girls. The Left is affirming delusion and harming kids. Chip in $1 to stop this.
Loaded Language: The phrase 'mental illness' is used as an emotionally charged label to delegitimize gender identity, framing it in stigmatizing clinical terms rather than engaging with the subject factually — for example: mental illness, not an identity and affirming delusion and harming kids.
Black-and-White Fallacy: The sentence presents only two mutually exclusive options — mental illness or identity — ignoring the complex spectrum of medical, psychological, and social perspectives — for example: a mental illness, not an identity and Boys cannot become girls.
Name Calling: The term 'The Left' is used as a derogatory political label to discredit a broad group rather than engage with specific arguments or policies — for example: The Left.
Appeal to Fear: The claim that children are being harmed is designed to trigger parental anxiety and override rational deliberation — for example: 'harming kids'
Loaded Language
Black-and-White Fallacy
Name Calling
Appeal to Fear
Looks up the ad's factual claims in fact-checkers, primary sources and wire reporting. Takes up to a minute.
Appeal to Prejudice: The sentence targets a specific religious/cultural group, implying they are disloyal outsiders who do not belong in America — for example: 'refuse to assimilate and put Sharia Law above the Constitution'
Black-and-White Fallacy: The sentence presents only two options — assimilate fully or leave — ignoring any middle ground or nuance — for example: 'you need to GO HOME'
Scapegoating: The sentence singles out Muslims or those who follow Sharia Law as a threat to American constitutional order, blaming a specific group — for example: 'put Sharia Law above the Constitution'
Loaded Language: Emotionally charged phrasing is used to provoke hostility toward a religious group — for example: 'GO HOME'
Glittering Generalities: 'America comes first' is a vague, emotionally positive slogan with no specific policy content, used as rhetorical flourish — for example: 'America comes first'
Appeal to Fear: The phrase 'fight back' implies an ongoing threat that requires urgent defensive action, triggering anxiety — for example: 'fight back'
Appeal to Prejudice
Black-and-White Fallacy
Scapegoating
Loaded Language
Glittering Generalities
Appeal to Fear
Looks up the ad's factual claims in fact-checkers, primary sources and wire reporting. Takes up to a minute.
False Urgency: The phrase 'it's time' repeated twice creates artificial urgency implying action must happen now — for example: It's time Big Tech pays
Appeal to Prejudice: Invoking 'the people of Alabama' as an in-group whose interests are being championed against an out-group (Big Tech), implying regional identity loyalty — for example: put the people of Alabama first
Name Calling: The label 'Big Tech' is used as a derogatory shorthand to frame a broad industry as a monolithic adversary without substantive argument — for example: Big Tech pays
Repetition: The phrase 'it's time' is repeated twice within a single sentence to create rhetorical emphasis and a sense of inevitability — for example: "It's time Big Tech pays", "it's time to put the people of Alabama first".
False Urgency
Appeal to Prejudice
Name Calling
Repetition
Looks up the ad's factual claims in fact-checkers, primary sources and wire reporting. Takes up to a minute.
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Paid for by TUBERVILLE FOR GOVERNOR INCfrom 2026-09-303 variantsspend $4,900–5,997280,000–319,997 impressions
It’s past time for criminals to pay the price for destroying our cities and hurting our people.
As your Governor, I will fight to make sure Alabama’s communities are safe.
Loaded Language: Emotionally charged words are used to provoke a strong reaction rather than convey neutral facts — for example: 'destroying our cities'
False Urgency: The phrase 'past time' implies that action is overdue and must happen immediately, creating artificial pressure — for example: 'It's past time'
Appeal to Prejudice: The phrase 'our people' and 'our cities' invokes an in-group identity to stoke emotional solidarity against an out-group — for example: 'our people'
Exaggeration/Hyperbole: The claim that criminals are 'destroying' entire cities is an extreme overstatement beyond what evidence typically supports — for example: 'destroying our cities'
Glittering Generalities: The phrase invokes vague, emotionally positive concepts of safety and community without specifying any concrete policy or action — for example: 'Alabama's communities are safe'
Loaded Language
False Urgency
Appeal to Prejudice
Exaggeration/Hyperbole
Glittering Generalities
Looks up the ad's factual claims in fact-checkers, primary sources and wire reporting. Takes up to a minute.
Paid for by TUBERVILLE FOR GOVERNOR INCfrom 2026-09-293 variantsspend $4,900–5,997265,000–304,997 impressions
When it comes to education, we’ve got the smarter plan.
The goal is simple: protect school choice and empower parents. Let’s educate Alabama’s future generation, not indoctrinate them.
Glittering Generalities: The phrase 'smarter plan' is a vague, positively charged claim that implies superiority without providing any specific substance or evidence — for example: 'smarter plan'
Black-and-White Fallacy: Presents only two options — education or indoctrination — ignoring the complex spectrum of pedagogical approaches — for example: "educate Alabama's future generation, not indoctrinate them".
Loaded Language: The word 'indoctrinate' is emotionally charged and implies sinister intent by opposing educators, triggering fear and outrage — for example: 'indoctrinate them'
Glittering Generalities
Black-and-White Fallacy
Loaded Language
Looks up the ad's factual claims in fact-checkers, primary sources and wire reporting. Takes up to a minute.
An ad is on this page because its own "Paid for by" line is a campaign in this race; or it ran mostly in AL and names a nominee for governor — unless its sponsor is a campaign for some other office (a U.S. Senate or House campaign included), or it also names AL's Senate nominees, in which case it is on the Senate race's page. Ads from outside groups appear alongside the campaigns' own.
The candidates are the ones certified for the November ballot, from the source linked at the top. Governors are state offices, so there are no FEC filings behind this page: no money figures, and outside groups are placed on a side only when they are a campaign or a party committee.
Campaigns run one text as many separate ads. Identical text from the same sponsor is one card here, marked with its number of variants.
A technique is a specific manipulative move in the wording, found by our model and explained in one line. It is not a claim that the ad is false.
Claims are checked when a reader asks: press "Check this ad's claims" on a card. The check runs once and its result is shown to everyone afterwards. The ten ads with the most money behind them in each race are checked ahead of time.
Claim verdicts say what the cited sources say. A verdict that an ad is wrong or misleading is shown only when it cites an established fact-checker or an institutional record — Congress, a federal agency, a court — and its confidence is not low; a weaker one is not shown at all. Each verdict shows what it rests on and how confident it is. If we got one wrong, press Disagree: a verdict that readers dispute and no one defends comes down.
Video ads come from the campaigns' own YouTube channels; the transcript is analyzed. Meta ads are analyzed on their text; their video and images are not, yet.
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