Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Mo Brooks created a stir among conservative commentators this week after sparring with a Fox News host who told viewers that there was no evidence of widespread election fraud in 2020.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s wrong,\u201d the congressman said emphatically, talking over Sandra Smith as she maintained that the election was not stolen. \u201cI don\u2019t know why you people in the media keep saying that, but that is absolutely false.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among those who saw the clip was Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
The former president, who endorsed Brooks in the Alabama Senate GOP primary before ditching him as his campaign floundered, was pleased by Brooks\u2019 performance during the exchange, according to two people close with the former president. Other top MAGA figures also heaped praise on Brooks, including Steve Bannon, who posted on Gettr Sunday that \u201cMo Brooks FINALLY GOT THE MEMO!!!!!!\u201d<\/p>\n
Brooks\u2019 return to MAGA\u2019s good graces has placed Trump in an awkward position. With the June 21 Republican Senate runoff fast approaching, Alabama presents an excellent opportunity for Trump to determine the outcome with a late endorsement \u2014 and thus burnish his win-loss record after a series of high-profile defeats.<\/p>\n
But his choice isn\u2019t an obvious one. Front-runner Katie Britt is the preferred candidate of Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Trump nemesis. Brooks is a McConnell adversary.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t see any upside to him getting in, honestly,\u201d said Jon Gray, a Republican strategist in the state, noting that Trump could have made a difference in the race had he decided to campaign for a new candidate months ago. \u201cI do think, though, there is this recollection of Mo having been with the president in the past, and his policies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Britt, the former chief of staff to retiring Sen. Richard Shelby, spoke with Trump by phone last weekend after finishing first in the May 24 primary, 15 percentage points ahead of Brooks, but short of the 50 percent threshold necessary to avoid a runoff. During the conversation, Trump said he wanted to see independent polling in the runoff, according to a person aware of the call.<\/p>\n
Britt\u2019s internal modeling shows her up 15 points, and the campaign has seen independent polling that has her even higher, said a person close to the campaign.<\/p>\n
Trump \u201chasn\u2019t made a decision yet\u201d about intervening in the runoff, said the person close to the president, adding that it\u2019s unlikely Trump sits out. If Trump were to turn around and re-endorse Brooks, he could make the argument that pulling the endorsement two months ago \u201ctaught him a lesson,\u201d the person said, and that \u201cMo got straight and has been very strong since\u201d on his rhetoric about the 2020 election.<\/p>\n
\u201cI certainly think that Mo Brooks is more ideologically aligned with Trump, and I certainly think that were he to come back and reendorse Mo Brooks, that it would help,\u201d said Jessica Taylor, a former candidate in the Senate race who dropped out earlier this year to endorse Mike Durant, who came in third-place last week. Taylor is now supporting Brooks in the runoff.<\/p>\n
Brooks, who was first elected to Congress in 2010 after spending a combined 25 years as a state legislator and member of the Madison County Commission, led efforts in Congress to oppose the certification of President Joe Biden\u2019s 2020 victory \u2014 including speaking at Trump\u2019s Jan. 6, 2021, rally. But Trump blamed Brooks\u2019 decline in support throughout the winter on comments the congressman made last year encouraging Republicans to move on from 2020 and focus their efforts on winning elections in 2022 and 2024.<\/p>\n
Britt, however, has not sought to champion Trump\u2019s stolen-election narrative. She has carefully answered questions about the issue by suggesting there were problems with election integrity and that a \u201cnationwide forensic audit\u201d should be conducted, but stopped short of declaring that Biden\u2019s victory was fraudulent.<\/p>\n
The former president of the Business Council of Alabama, Britt drew sharp criticism from Trump last summer, but has since worked to earn his respect. Trump last July called Britt the \u201cassistant\u201d of \u201cthe RINO Senator from Alabama,\u201d referring to Shelby, and said she was \u201cnot what our Country needs.\u201d After Trump announced in March that he was rescinding his support for Brooks, however, he said he would be issuing a new endorsement in the race, referring to either Britt or Durant.<\/p>\n
But the primary came and went without a new endorsement.<\/p>\n
For Trump, Alabama is an important state to get right in the wake of a series of losses in three gubernatorial primaries. It\u2019s a conservative bastion that he easily won twice, but where his endorsement record is mixed \u2014 and in need of vindication.<\/p>\n
In the state\u2019s 2017 Republican Senate primary special election, Trump\u2019s endorsed candidate, appointed Sen. Luther Strange, fell short. Trump then threw his support behind GOP nominee Roy Moore in the general election, only for Moore to lose to Democrat Doug Jones amid a series of sexual misconduct allegations.<\/p>\n
Some party activists in Alabama still place blame on McConnell for costing the state a safe Republican Senate seat in 2017, when his allied super PAC spent heavily to attack Brooks \u2014 who was also running in the special election \u2014 in an effort to boost Strange. Instead, the plan backfired as support for Moore increased, and he became the party\u2019s nominee.<\/p>\n
That unique anti-McConnell sentiment in Alabama \u2014 coupled with Trump\u2019s general disdain for the Republican Senate leader \u2014 is something Brooks is trying to seize upon, framing the campaign as \u201cMAGA versus Mitch.\u201d For months, he has been on a statewide \u201cFire McConnell tour,\u201d and vowed not to support the Kentucky senator as leader, if elected.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is not an appreciation for Mitch McConnell down here, and there will be some remembrance of that,\u201d Gray said of whether Brooks\u2019 strategy will prove effective with runoff voters.<\/p>\n
McConnell\u2019s aligned super PAC, Senate Leadership Fund, gave $2 million this spring to a pro-Britt group, though a spokesperson told POLITICO the donation was \u201cpurely an anti-Brooks effort.\u201d<\/p>\n
Britt has declined to pledge to oppose McConnell as Senate leader, though she has made general statements about wanting to see a new generation of leaders in the Republican Party.<\/p>\n
She has her campaign\u2019s well-organized voter outreach to thank for her success last month, which will prove crucial in generating turnout for the runoff, Gray said. But if Britt supporters think her victory over Brooks is in the bag and don\u2019t show up to vote, \u201cshe\u2019s going to be in a lot of trouble,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Britt\u2019s campaign is ramping up its ground game leading up to June 21, including more than doubling their field staff from eight to 18, said Britt spokesman Sean Ross. Ahead of the May primary, her campaign knocked on 18,000 doors around the state, made 160,000 live phone calls and connected with 96,000 voters through robocalls.<\/p>\n
\u201cKatie has been traveling the state relentlessly,\u201d Ross said. \u201cShe is the only candidate to go to all the counties, and is doubling down on that for the runoff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brooks is at a significant fundraising disadvantage compared with Britt, who had more than four times Brooks\u2019 cash on hand as of mid-May. He is backed by the anti-tax Club for Growth, however, which has so far spent $5.5 million on ads in the Senate race \u2014 including $1 million reserved through the runoff. On Thursday, the super PAC cut more than a half-million dollars from its runoff ad reservations.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the Club\u2019s super PAC declined to comment on the group\u2019s strategy in Alabama in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n
Perry Hooper Jr., a close ally of Trump in Alabama, said he is not convinced Trump will take any action at all on the runoff, but hopes Trump will back Britt.<\/p>\n
“Trump loves Alabama, and Alabama loves him, but he wants to make the right decision,\u201d Hooper said. \u201cIn my humble opinion, the right decision would be Katie Britt.<\/p>\n
“I have a feeling he’s not going to endorse anybody.”<\/p>\n
Meridith McGraw contributed to this report.<\/p>\n