Katie Britt and Mo Brooks will advance to Republican Senate runoff in Alabama, CNN projects
By Dan Merica, CNN
The Republican Senate primary in Alabama is headed to a runoff, CNN projects, after none of candidates hoping to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Richard Shelby were able to win more than 50% of the vote.
Katie Britt, a former Shelby aide who later led the Business Council of Alabama, and US Rep. Mo Brooks will advance to a June 21 runoff with both finishing ahead of Army veteran Mike Durant.
Making the runoff caps a topsy-turvy few months for Brooks, who initially won Trump’s endorsement in the race, only to lose it after he said it was time to look ahead to the 2022 and 2024 elections, and not at Trump’s 2020 presidential loss.
“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,'” Trump said in a March statement, rescinding his endorsement.
The move badly damaged Brooks, who had been deeply loyal to Trump. He was the first Republican congressman to vote against certifying the 2020 election results on January 6, 2021.
Trump’s disavowal also gave Britt momentum in the race, and her campaign trained its focus on Durant.
But Brooks benefited from campaigning in obscurity, which allowed him to earn a burst of momentum in the final days of the campaign.
“Just call me a modern-day Lazarus,” Brooks told CNN’s Gabby Orr on Sunday, joking that his late-stage surge “makes me kind of wonder if Donald Trump was planning it from the beginning.”
Still, Brooks will finish significantly behind Britt in Tuesday’s first round, signaling the congressman has work to do in the runoff.
What Trump does next will also be of interest. Since un-endorsing Brooks, the former President has not publicly weighed in on the race.
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