On the eve of a hard-fought U.S. Senate primary to replace Alabama’s U.S. senator Richard Shelby, a new announcement from one of the contenders may change the outcome. Mike Durant and Katie Britt are running close races alongside Mo Brooks, and tonight, Durant released a statement saying that he would throw his support behind Brooks if he comes in third and misses the runoff.
The U.S. Senate seat seemed like an easy win for Brooks when he easily won the endorsement of former President Donald Trump early on in the campaign. However, that changed when Trump rescinded his endorsement of Brooks in March, citing Brooksā performance in the race, poor campaign staffing, and what Trump saw as a softening of Brooksā stance onĀ election fraud claims. Since then, the three contenders been have put most of their energy into trying to sway voters in north Alabama using negative ads against each other.
Durant stated to NBC News, “If I was not in a runoff, well that is a very unlikely scenario, however, I would absolutely support Congressman Brooks because the way that the Britt campaign has handled this race. If you’re gonna be that corrupt in an election, then you’re gonna be that corrupt in office. We got enough of that.”
According to a WHNT report, Durant blames attack ads from the Britt campaign is what led him to lose support in the race.
āI have a real issue with the way the Britt campaign managed this campaign, in terms of the false attack adsā Durant stated. āThe keyword being āfalseā, attack ads are one thing, but false attack ads should be somehow prohibited.ā
Ā āIām confident we will make the runoff because I hear from voters all over the state that they see through it, not all of them, but the majority see through it, but absolutely, itās pretty clear I had a double-digit lead before all these false attack ads came out,ā he said.
