I am currently a fixed-term faculty, with the hopes of a tenure-track position somewhere. The last two years I’ve bounced between fixed-term position, both in at least reasonable long-distance driving from where my fiancé and I live. Now a tenure track position has come available for next year still not close to us but again reasonable long distance driving (I've worked anywhere from 1.5-3 hours away).
I am hoping in the time it would take to get tenure at this new position, a tenure track position in our actual city will become available (pretty big metro). Would I be screwing myself to leave the long-distance tenure track position without tenure, if I got a tenure-track position in our local city? Would it be a red-flag that I’m even applying without tenure or could I explain location as the reason for the move in my cover letter?