Mo Brooks is doubling down on an endorsement from a conservative super PAC that rose to prominence part of the “Never Trump” movement.
Last week, the New Jersey-based Courageous Conservatives PAC endorsed Brooks, the Alabama congressman and candidate for U.S. Senate facing incumbent Luther Strange in the crowded Aug. 15 Republican primary.
As reported by AL.com, Courageous Conservatives had spent more than $46,000 on anti-Trump ads – with only $87 to attack Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016. The group supported Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in the GOP primary, spending about $186,000.
The PAC also played a role in the “Dump Trump” movement to transfer delegates during the Republican National Convention.
One of the Courageous Conservatives ads in the 2016 cycle blasted Trump over his list of prospective Supreme Court nominees, which included Bill Pryor, a federal judge who served as a former Alabama Attorney General.
The ad was critical of Trump’s inclusion of Pryor, taking him to task for removing Roy Moore off the Alabama Supreme Court “for displaying the Ten Commandments.”
Brooks told AL.com he was unaware of the February 2016 ad, saying it was “a question for Roy Moore.”
“I’m not going to engage in this kind of debate about whether an entity is 100 percent in agreement with me all the time,” Brooks added. “They are conservatives who have the courage to stand up to establishment, moneyed candidates, and tried to get elected to various offices principled conservatives, and I agree with that.”
As a super PAC, Courageous Conservatives cannot directly coordinate with Brooks’ Senate campaign. But the congressman did say its support could be helpful in the primary.
“I saw what they did in Virginia just because of my work in Washington,” Brooks said, talking about what the PAC did for Corey Stewart in the Virginia governor’s race, in which he lost the primary by less than 5,000 votes.
“My knowledge of Courageous Conservatives focuses primarily on the impact they had on the Virginia Republican primary and how much they boosted Corey Stewart’s campaign,” Brooks told AL.com. “That’s my knowledge of Courageous Conservatives.”
Brooks is one of 10 candidates in the special election to determine who will serve the remainder of the Senate term of Jeff Sessions, who left to become Trump’s attorney general. Then-Gov. Robert Bentley appointed Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange to the seat earlier this year. A primary runoff, if necessary, will be Sept. 26; the general election is Dec. 12.
