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Mo Brooks, Katie Britt to face off in Alabama GOP Senate runoff

Brooks, once a close ally of former President Donald Trump, was an early favorite in the race but steadily lost steam.
Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., and Katie Britt, Republican Senate candidate for Alabama.
Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., and Katie Britt, a Republican Senate candidate in Alabama.AP; Bloomberg via Getty Images

Katie Britt, a former top aide to Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., advanced to a runoff election against Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., in the Alabama GOP Senate primary Tuesday, NBC News projects.

None of the leading contenders secured more than 50 percent of the vote, forcing a runoff, set to take place June 21. Businessman Mike Durant, a former Army helicopter pilot who was polling third, announced his concession Tuesday evening.

With 84 percent of the expected vote in just before midnight ET, Britt had secured 45.2 percent, leading Brooks by more than 16 points.

"Thank you, Alabama! What an incredible night!" Britt tweeted after she advanced to the runoff. "We still have a lot of work to do." In his election night address, Brooks vowed to fight "McConnell-Britt" efforts in the race.

Brooks, once a close ally of former President Donald Trump, was an early favorite in the race to replace Shelby, who did not seek re-election. Trump endorsed Brooks in April 2021, but after months of steadily declining poll numbers, he rescinded the endorsement.

Trump blamed comments Brooks made at a rally in August that it was time to move on from the 2020 election and "look forward."

“When I endorsed Mo Brooks, he took a 44-point lead and was unstoppable,” Trump said in March. “He then hired a new campaign staff who ‘brilliantly’ convinced him to ‘stop talking about the 2020 Election.’ He listened to them.”

Britt, who has repeated Trump's claims that there was fraud in the 2020 election, told AL.com in March that a "forensic audit" was needed. Brooks has also repeatedly made similar claims, even after he lost Trump's support.

In pulling his endorsement, Trump was backing away from one of his fiercest defenders, a man widely considered to be one of the most conservative members of Congress. Brooks addressed the crowd at Trump’s rally ahead of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, saying, “Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass.” Brooks, along with two other GOP lawmakers, recently turned down requests for testimony from the House Jan. 6 committee.

Brooks accused Trump in March of allowing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to “manipulate him again.” McConnell is backing Britt, Shelby’s former chief of staff and a past head of the Business Council of Alabama, while a McConnell-affiliated super PAC contributed $2 million to an anti-Brooks super PAC. In the same statement, Brooks said Trump “asked me to rescind the 2020 elections, immediately remove Joe Biden from the White House, immediately put President Trump back in the White House, and hold a new special election for the presidency.”

“As a lawyer, I’ve repeatedly advised President Trump that January 6 was the final election contest verdict and neither the U.S. Constitution nor the U.S. Code permit what President Trump asks,” he said. “Period.”

In recent weeks, Brooks experienced a rebound in the polls. A survey released last week by Alabama Daily News and Gray TV found Britt in first at 31 percent, followed by Brooks at 29 percent and Durant, a retired Army helicopter pilot whose capture during a U.S. military mission in Somalia was portrayed in “Black Hawk Down,” at 24 percent. 

Speaking with NBC News on Tuesday, Brooks said his campaign was able to “start campaigning more aggressively” after Trump pulled his endorsement.

“No one has 100 percent influence,” Brooks said of Trump. “There are varying degrees of influence in different parts of the country.”

Brooks has received backing from Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Rand Paul, R-Ky., as well as the conservative economic group Club for Growth, which has spent millions on Republican primaries across the country and recently split with Trump over endorsements in the Ohio and Pennsylvania Senate races.

Trump posted on his Truth Social platform this week in response to a news story that Brooks’ campaign was sending out mailers with Trump’s past endorsement. “CAN’T DO THAT MO!” Trump wrote. Brooks’ campaign told the Alabama Political Reporter the mailing was “an honest mistake that wasn’t supposed to happen.”