Alabama’s Jeff Sessions snags No. 2 spot on 2016’s POLITICO 50 List

POLITICO Magazine Monday revealed its 2016 Politico 50 list, comprised of “thinkers, doers and visionaries transforming American politics in 2016.”

As the magazine puts it, “in the midst of an often-bizarre and sometimes downright depressing election, this list represents something altogether surprising: a collection of people who, no matter their widely divergent views, offer powerful examples of how and why ideas continue to make a difference in politics and policy.”

Snagging the No. 2 spot for 2016, this year’s list recognizes Alabama’s own U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, along with former Sessions staffer Stephen Miller, as “Trump’s policy whisperers.”

Sessions, a a 69-year-old Republican senator from Hybart, is best known for his ultra-conservative policies on immigration and was the first U.S. Senator to endorse Donald Trump.

Long before he donned a “Make America Great Again” hat at a February rally in Alabama, Sessions advocated for some of the same outsider views that Trump’s candidacy has turned into the new normal in the GOP.

Throughout this election cycle, Sessions and Trump have become kindred political spirits, drawn together by a shared belief that some of their Republican Party leaders are selling out their own voters on immigration, as well as on trade.