Alabama state Senator Tom Whatley wakes up between 4 and 5 a.m. to start his day before he makes decisions that affect every Auburn citizen. He starts his day off with a swim or a run before he takes his son to school. He gets dressed in either a suit for court or sweatpants to move furniture or do work to take care of his real estate business. Real estate, law and Senate are just a few of the things Whatley spends his time doing.
Whatley has his own law firm where he takes allows students to intern with him to further their law career.
"We do civil and criminal litigation," Whatley said. "We do DUI defense (and) public intoxication on the college level here in Auburn."
Whatley said he enjoys having student interns because he enjoys watching them mature and find a job and knowing he played a part in it.
From March through June, Whatley goes to Montgomery every day to conduct his business with the Senate. During the rest of the year, he goes to Montgomery a couple times a week.
"When he's not down there in session he's constantly going from one meeting to another within his own district," said Marc Bankston, childhood friend of Whatley. "He's always tied up with legislative work."
Whatley spends a lot of his time communicating with constituents and trying to help them with their concerns. He said his advice to young people is to always treat someone's concerns like it's the most important thing, because to them it is.
"When somebody calls up or contacts you, it's a really big honor for me to get that phone call because by the time they're calling me they've usually tried to solve the problem on their own and they've become very frustrated with it," Whatley said. "The thing to remember is that to them, that's the most important thing that's going on right now, no matter how trivial it may sound to you."
Whatley's workday usually ends at approximately 7 p.m. In his downtime, Whatley said he enjoys frequenting Coffee Cat, Acre and The Hound. To relax, Whatley said he enjoys reading about history or fiction.
"He's way more busy than he used to be now that he's a state senator," Bankston said.
Rick Knuth, another friend of Whatley, met him through Bankston during college. Knuth said after knowing Whatley for about 30 years, Whatley is one of the hardest working people he knows both politically and with his law firm.
"Every time I talk to him it seems like he's got 10 things going on at once," Knuth said. "How he keeps up with all of them I don't know, but he gets them done and from what I can tell he does a pretty good job for our district and the state too while handling everything else he handles."
Whatley said that he likes to spend a lot of time with his two nephews, so he drives to Washington, D.C. often to see them. He also tries to sign up for triathlons in cities where he has friends so he can have an opportunity to visit with them.
"Auburn University and Auburn, Alabama have been near and dear to Tom," Knuth said. "Being able to be the state representative for this district in particular means a lot to him."
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