“Trump winning kind of showed, ‘Hey, anybody can do this,’” said Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), a former college football coach elected in 2020. “President Trump opened the doors for a lot of people. He’s not a lawyer. He hadn’t been in politics before. He’s an outsider. So that influenced my decision.”

“I started a trend, didn’t I?” Tuberville quipped…

“The logical response to President Trump’s election would be people running who don’t have political experience but have wide recognition,” said Blunt, who is retiring next year. Two House Republicans are vying in the primary to replace him, but they’re currently trailing the state’s former governor and sitting attorney general.

Running as a household name certainly has its perks, particularly in a costly statewide race. Besides the obvious name recognition, they can raise money more easily — or tap their own personal fortunes to fund their campaigns — than their competition while claiming the “outsider” status often coveted in congressional runs. And with the wide reach of cable talk shows, already well-known candidates can communicate to voters fairly easily without paying for advertisements.