The Alabama GOP primary runoff between Katie Britt and Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., was close just a week ago, but the endorsement of former President Donald Trump might make it a runaway, the latest polls show.
Britt is a runaway favorite in Tuesday’s runoff against Brooks, who had his endorsement pulled when he told an Alabama Save America rally GOP voters should stop looking back at the 2020 presidential election integrity issues.
The Trump endorsement is being hailed as a catalyst, including Friday’s Alabama Forestry Association poll conducted by McLaughlin & Associates:
- Britt: 58.4%.
- Brooks: 32.6%.
- Undecided: 9.0%.
That poll is not unlike a pair of others on RealClearPolitics.
The Hill/Emerson College Poll has Britt with 59% support and Brooks at 41% — when it forced respondents to make a decision.
The Auburn University Poll had Britt up 20 points, with 50% support to Brooks’ 30% support.
All three polls came after Trump endorsed Britt on Friday, June 10, doubling down on the former president’s decision to spurn his previous choice in the Republican primary.
Trump called Britt “an incredible fighter for the people of Alabama.” The former president had originally backed Brooks in the race, but rescinded that endorsement in March after their relationship soured.
Britt was chief of staff to retiring Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., before stepping down to lead a state business group, and is now running to fill Shelby’s vacant seat. Britt and Brooks face off in the June 21 runoff that will decide the Republican nominee.
“Above all, Katie Britt will never let you down,” Trump wrote, adding, “she has my complete and total endorsement!”
The decision was another blow to Brooks, who had sought to regain Trump’s support.
“Mo has been wanting it back ever since, but I cannot give it to him!” Trump wrote. “Katie Britt, on the other hand, is a fearless America First Warrior.”
Trump endorsed Brooks last year, rewarding the conservative firebrand who had been an ardent supporter of Trump’s 2020 election fraud claims. Brooks had whipped up a crowd of Trump supporters at the Jan. 6, 2021, rally that preceded the storming of the Capitol.
But Trump pulled that endorsement, citing Brooks’ languishing performance in the race and going “woke” for saying at a Cullman rally it was time to move on from litigating the 2020 presidential election and focus that energy on upcoming elections instead.
Britt led the primary field in the May primary, and has been seeking Trump’s support since he backed away from Brooks.
“President Trump knows that Alabamians are sick and tired of failed, do-nothing career politicians,” Britt said in a statement. “It’s time for the next generation of conservatives to step up and shake things up in Washington to save the country we know and love for our children and our children’s children.”
Despite losing Trump’s endorsement in March, Brooks had continued to campaign under the label of “MAGA Mo,” a reference to the Make America Great Again slogan, and had challenged Britt to a debate on the singular topic of whether the 2020 election was “stolen.”
Brooks tweeted voters of Alabama will decide the race.
“Let’s just admit it: Trump endorses the wrong people sometimes,” Brooks wrote, noting a Trump-endorsed candidate lost the 2017 Senate race in Alabama.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
Via Newsmax