DAPHNE - Current U.S. Sen. and Alabama gubernatorial candidate Tommy Tuberville made an appearance in Daphne on Tuesday, Oct. 13, for a "Fellowship and Freedom Fish Fry and Rally" hosted by the Baldwin County Republican Party.

Tuberville, who is the Republican nominee for Alabama governor, faces Democratic nominee Doug Jones, former U.S. senator for Alabama, in a rematch of the 2020 Senate election, in which Tuberville won in a landslide. Both candidates are seeking to succeed the term-limited Kay Ivey.

Tuesday's event was closed to the press, but Tuberville spoke to reporters beforehand.

Tuberville's visit comes days after Hurricane Isaias swept through Alabama and the coastal United States, with Tuberville singling out Escambia County as an area that was hit badly, saying he has talked to the local sheriff. He also said he talked to Alabama Power CEO Jeff Peoples, who said he hopes to restore power to everyone later that night, but said, "We can't guarantee that."

"It wasn't as bad as we thought it was going to be now," Tuberville said. "We kept our fingers crossed. It went a little bit to the east of us. We were very fortunate there. One thing, I will come back Thursday. We have a lot of farmers that had a lot of salt on their crops and that's not good, and so we'll assess that, look at it, talk to our farmers, see what we can do from the state level and federal level. Our farmers are already hurt and we need to help them if we possibly can, but if you do have problems still at home, if you can, make a phone call. Let people know that you don't have power, things are not going the way they should. We'll get in touch with the sheriff's department, but I tell you, there's been a lot of good people. A lot of good Americans down there working on help cleaning the mess up because it has been a mess."

In campaign ads leading up to Election Day on Nov. 3, Tuberville proclaimed, "Don't think I won't send in the National Guard on Day 1," calling Montgomery "a war zone" and Birmingham and Mobile "dangerous."

When asked if he believes cities like Mobile would need the National Guard, Tuberville emphasized his vision for public safety but said they will evaluate their options.

"The one thing that we will do, we'll evaluate everybody, what they're doing and what they're not doing in terms of making their cities and streets safe, so there's no reason to jump the gun on the National Guard part, but as I've said, if that's what it takes, we're going to do it," Tuberville said. "We're going to put people out there. We're going to make people safe."

Tuberville said he met with the Mobile Police Department and has visited its command center.

"A lot of the city police have a great task force there," Tuberville said. "They do a great job of monitoring things, but again, if they're having problems with safe streets and neighborhoods, we are going to help. Now we're not going to be out front on it, we're gonna help everybody to make sure that they have an opportunity to put enough people out there to make sure our streets are safe."

Tuberville was asked about his vision for the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) and who his pick for director would be if current ALDOT Director John Cooper decides to retire following the transition of governors after the general election.

"We got a lot of names but I haven't jumped the gun on that," Tuberville said. "Some of my staff have met with some people. I haven't met with anybody, but we got a list of probably half a dozen to ten at each position that we're looking at if we have an opening. We don't know yet because first of all, I've got to get elected, but I haven't sat down as the governor elect and talked to these people, so we'll make a decision."

Tuberville said the Mobile River Bridge and Bayway Project, which broke ground this month, would be his top priority, adding that he wants to start a "10, 12 year process" of making every interstate and state route at least three lanes, such as Interstate 65, saying he has talked to President Donald Trump and U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy about it.

"We got a lot of things to do," Tuberville said. "We need to build more roads instead of just putting pavement down. We're building a road on the west side of the state and it's coming along good. I've flown over and looked at it, but we've got about 2,000 bridges that have been condemned around the state, so we got to put a priority on some of those, but it is going to be a huge task for any ALDOT director that we bring in, and so I want to get somebody with a business mind. I'm not looking as much for an engineer. I want somebody that's going to be business minded, set up a plan for us for the entire state and go from there."

He was also asked about his vision for the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Long-time commissioner Chris Blankenship recently retired, with Tuberville saying he did "an outstanding job" in the role.

"We're gonna put an emphasis on tourism, even more emphasis than we have in the past, but unfortunately, I can't talk Chris (Blankenship) into staying if I get elected," Tuberville said. "He said 'I'm ready to go home and start doing something else,' so we'll put out a search for somebody to work with our game wardens, our fisheries, anything to do with conservation, and then obviously our state parks. It's gonna be a big part of what we do and there's a big part of what goes down in Baldwin County and Mobile County, so looking forward to getting somebody that's really, really good to pick up where Chris left off."