In February 2008, Barkley announced that he would be running for Governor of Alabama in 2014 as an Independent. On October 27, 2008, he officially announced his candidacy for Governor of Alabama in an interview with CNN, stating that he planned to run in the 2014 election cycle, but he began to back off the idea in a November 24, 2009 interview on "The Jay Leno Show". In 2010, he confirmed that he was not running in 2014. In August 2015, Barkley announced his support for Republican John Kasich in the 2016 presidential election. On Lance Armstrong's podcast in 2019, he confirmed that he would not be running for office.