As the clock winds down on Alabama’s Republican U.S. Senate primary, sitting Sen. Luther Strange’s campaign rolled out a late ad campaign touting President Donald Trump‘s Twitter endorsement.
POLITICO reports the ads launched Thursday morning, only days before the special Senate primary to decide who will complete Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ Senate term.
“President Trump says Luther Strange is the best conservative to pass our agenda,” says the narrator in “Trump Man,” Strange’s new 30-second spot as Trump’s tweet is shown in the background. “Tweeting, ‘Luther Strange has done a great job representing the great people of the great state of Alabama. He has my complete and total endorsement!'”
An accompanying radio ad focuses on Mo Brooks, one of Strange’s leading primary rivals.
“Brooks keeps attacking our president,” says the radio narrator, playing a clip of Brooks saying: “I don’t think you can trust Donald Trump with anything he says.”
Strange and Brooks have been trading digs in the heated midsummer 9-person primary battle, which includes former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore.
Recent polling gives Moore a slight 31-29 lead over Strange – a statistical tie within the margin of error. The same poll showed Brooks with 18 percent support, followed by state Sen. Trip Pittman with 8 percent and Alabama Christian Coalition president Randy Brinson with 2 percent.
Eleven percent were undecided.
Other Republican candidates include Dr. James Beretta, Joseph Breault, Mary Maxwell and Bryan Peeples.
As for Democrats, polling gives Robert Kennedy, Jr. a lead in the 7-person field with 49 percent; former U.S. Attorney Doug Jones had 28 percent. The remaining field took only single digits.
Unless one of the candidates can secure a 50 percent plus one majority of the vote in the Aug. 15 primary, Alabama voters will have to decide between the top two vote-getters in a Sept. 26 runoff. The general election is Dec. 12.
