The Alabama Senate race will advance to a runoff between Rep. Mo Brooks and Katie Britt, the former chief of staff for outgoing Sen. Richard Shelby.
Britt was 15 points ahead of Brooks, but failed to capture 50 percent of the vote, triggering a runoff election on June 16.
With over 95 percent of the votes in, Britt was nearly 100,000 votes ahead, and led Brooks 44.7 percent to 29.2 percent.
‘Thank you, Alabama! What an incredible night! We still have a lot of work to do. But I’m ready to take on the fight. We’re going to win on June 21!’ Britt wrote on Twitter Tuesday night.
‘WE DID IT! Tonight, we clinched our spot in the runoff election. Thank you for everything you’ve done to make this happen. But we don’t have a moment to rest—because it’s game on for the runoff starting now,’ Brooks tweeted.
Katie Britt, pictured above as she arrived to talk with supporters at a watch party, led Brooks by 15 points
Trump initially endorsed, Rep. Mo Brooks, a longtime election denier, but clawed back that support after Brooks slipped in the polls and called on him to ‘move on’ from the 2020 election
Trump initially endorsed, Brooks, a longtime election denier, but clawed back that support after Brooks slipped in the polls and called on his supporters to ‘move on’ from the 2020 election.
‘Mo Brooks of Alabama made a horrible mistake recently when he went ‘woke’ and stated, referring to the 2020 Presidential Election Scam, ‘Put that behind you, put that behind you,’ despite the fact that the Election was rife with fraud and irregularities,’ Trump wrote in a March statement, announcing he would no longer support Brooks. He never made another endorsement in the race.
Trump claimed Brooks tanked a ’44-point lead’ after he hired new campaign staff who ‘brilliantly’ told him to ‘stop talking about the 2020 election.’
‘He listened to them,’ Trump said. ‘Then, according to the polls, Mo’s 44-point lead totally evaporated all based on his ‘2020’ statement made at our massive rally in Cullman, Alabama.’
Brooks advised rallygoers in August to put 2020 ‘behind you,’ as Trump said, and was heckled by the crowd who shouted ‘no’ and booed.
‘Look forward, look forward, look forward. Beat them in 2022, beat them in 2024,’ he shouted over the boos. ‘Alright, we’ll look back at it, but go forward and take advantage of it. We’ve got to win in 2022, we’ve got to win in 2024, that’s what we’ve got to do.’
The crowd seemingly got back on Brooks’ side when he asked if they’d help Trump and MAGA candidates ‘take back our country.’
‘When I heard his statement, I said, ‘Mo, you just blew the Election, and there’s nothing you can do about it.’ Very sad but, since he decided to go in another direction, so have I, and I am hereby withdrawing my Endorsement of Mo Brooks for the Senate,’ Trump announced Wednesday.
Trump came back for more, writing in another statement: ‘Mo Brooks was a leader on the 2020 Election Fraud and then, all of sudden, during the big rally in Alabama, he went “woke” and decided to drop everything he stood for—when he did, the people of Alabama dropped him, and now I have done so also. The people get it, but unfortunately, Mo doesn’t.’
In a statement sent out by Brooks Wednesday, he blasted Trump for being manipulated by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
‘I wish President Trump wouldn’t fall for McConnell’s ploys, but, once again, he has,’ Brooks said.
Trump clawed back his endorsement of Brooks as the congressman slipped in the polls, blaming his calls to ‘move on’ from the 2020 election
Trump shot back in his evening statement: ‘As far as Mitch McConnell, I am not a fan and there’s been no harsher critic than me. He has been absolutely terrible, and very bad for the GOP. The sooner he leaves “Leadership,” the better off the Republican Party will be.’
Brooks said that Trump, laser-focused as ever on his 2020 election loss, repeatedly asked the Alabama Republican to ‘rescind’ the presidential election results and ‘remove’ President Biden from office. Brooks said he’d been fielding the former president’s requests ‘off and on again since September 2021.’
‘The word he used was ‘rescind,’ he said. ‘We didn’t get into the details because it’s legally impossible. And I explained that fairly promptly.’
Brooks, a longtime defender of the former president’s election fraud claims, said he did not receive a courtesy call before Trump clawed back his endorsement.
‘I’ve told President Trump the truth knowing full well that it might cause President Trump to rescind his endorsement,’ Brooks said in an earlier statement.
‘When the President calls me ‘woke,’ there’s not anybody in Alabama with a brain larger than the size of a pea who believes that Mo Brooks is a woke liberal,’ Brooks added.
Meanwhile in Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp secured a massive win over Trump-endorsed former Sen. David Perdue in the gubernatorial race, as did Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger after facing a primary challenge from Trump-endorsed Rep. Jody Hice. Trump’s Senate candidate in Georgia, Herschel Walker cinched the GOP nomination, as did Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who had faced a challenge from Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush.
Trump paid no mind to the stinging losses of Perdue and Hice, and touted Tuesday’s primaries as a win.
‘A very big and successful evening of political Endorsements. All wins in Texas (33 & 0 for full primary list), Arkansas, and Alabama. A great new Senatorial Candidate, and others, in Georgia. Overall for the “Cycle,” 100 Wins, 6 Losses (some of which were not possible to win), and 2 runoffs. Thank you, and CONGRATULATIONS to all!’ he wrote on Truth Social.