In Alabama, a menace to Mitch McConnell holds support from Rand Paul
Alabama’s Senate race is serving up as a proxy battle between Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul’s divergent visions of the Republican Party.
While Paul has campaigned on behalf of Mo Brooks, the Alabama congressman who on Jan. 6 urged the crowd of Donald Trump’s supporters to start “taking down names and kicking ass” before the storming of the U.S. Capitol, McConnell’s allies favor Katie Britt, a telegenic 40-year-old who ran the state’s Business Council.
“The people who I trust that I know really well from my state, Thomas Massie and others, tell me he has a great voting record ... It takes somebody who’s willing to stir the pot, who is willing and unafraid,” Paul said during a Monday evening tele-townhall for Brooks. “We need hard-hitters who are unafraid to tell the truth and I think Mo Brooks is one of those.”
Britt and Brooks advanced to a four-week runoff after taking the top two slots in the GOP primary vote on Tuesday. Britt captured 45% of the vote to Brooks 29%, but neither topped the 50% necessary to avoid a second round.
Brooks, 68, has placed his vehement opposition to McConnell at the center of his case for why he’d be the more reliably conservative choice for Alabama Republicans.
“This Senate runoff is a battle for the soul of the Republican Party. It is Mitch McConnell’s Katie Britt versus Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Rand Paul, and America First’s MAGA Mo Brooks,” Brooks said after Tuesday’s results. “Katie Britt is a Chamber of Commerce lobbyist backed by McConnell and the Swamp. They are bragging about trying to buy this seat for Britt.
McConnell, an Alabama native, hasn’t outwardly endorsed Britt, but the super PAC run by his former chief of staff donated $2 million to an Alabama group designed to take down Brooks and assist Britt.
Stephen Law, who runs the McConnell-blessed Senate Leadership Fund, told The Hill earlier this month that Brooks has historically been “a very weak candidate…a bad fundraiser, prone to gaffes.”
A spokesperson for SLF noted that its involvement was “purely an anti-Brooks effort and not an endorsement of any one candidate.”
Additionally, McConnell allies in Washington have quietly sent financial contributions to Britt. Monica Popp, a GOP consultant who is married to David Popp, McConnell’s communications director, Brian McGuire, a former McConnell chief of staff and Megan Hauck, a former health policy adviser to McConnell, have all sent Britt personal donations.
The Britt campaign did not respond to an inquiry about McConnell’s influence on the race.
Brooks, meanwhile, doesn’t have anywhere close to Britt’s support from the D.C. fundraising circuit, but his campaign believes their strategy in blasting McConnell is salient, since the GOP leader is viewed dubiously by Republican base voters as a king of the anti-Trump movement. One poll showed McConnell’s favorability rating among Alabama Republicans registers just 27%, with 54% viewing the Kentuckian unfavorably.
In the last month, Brooks has aired three television ads that have included slights and images of McConnell. In one, McConnell flashes onto the screen when Brooks highlights his fight against an amnesty bill. A second labels McConnell a “debt junkie.” A third spot flashes the word “weak” over McConnell’s likeness.
“The swamp hates Mo Brooks,” says an announcer. “That’s why Mitch McConnell spent over $15 million attacking him.”
Earlier in the month, Brooks held a series of rallies around Alabama that were titled “Fire McConnell townhalls.”
“ Mitch McConnell is viewed here in Alabama as the epitome of all that is wrong with the party. He represents the establishment in a state that prides itself on a base that is anti-establishment,” said Apryl Marie Fogel, a talk radio host and conservative activist in the state. “On the other hand, this is a state that has long embraced Ted Cruz and Rand Paul style conservatism. They’d love to see more of that fiery brand senator on the floor.”
Fogel added, “There’s a lot more riding on this election and run-off than just who is going to hold this seat; McConnell and team has the money but Cruz and Paul have the hearts of the voters.”
Brooks’ focus on McConnell also aims to take the attention away from his tortured relationship with Trump. Trump initially endorsed Brooks and then later revoked his support, due to frustration with comments the congressman made about moving past the 2020 election result.
“I’ll tell you this: I don’t believe Donald Trump is going to get conned by McConnell twice,” Brooks said after qualifying for the runoff. “He’s not going to side with Mitch McConnell and against the Alabama grassroots. At the end of the day, he’s going to stand with the America First movement.”
But the former president has a rocky history with Alabama. He fired his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who hailed from the state. His choice to succeed Sessions lost in a special 2017 primary election to the controversial Roy Moore. With the runoff pitting Britt against Brooks, Trump will be faced with another tricky choice of whether to align with McConnell forces against an avowed foe.
Britt is seen as a conservative female who will be an ally of McConnell’s leadership, while Brooks is more likely to be a threat to his cautious and calculating leadership style and rising to stand alongside Paul in lonely fights.
In an interview late last year, Brooks suggested Paul, along with Cruz would be preferable leaders of the Senate Republican caucus to McConnell.
“I anticipate that once in the Senate, the people of Alabama are going to want me to support as the Republican Leader in the Senate, whoever is the most conservative senator running for that position, and that’s what I will do,” Brooks said at the time.
Paul did not mention McConnell in his remarks advocating for Brooks, but he did lament the amount of Republicans who run for office and then swiftly become part of the establishment in Congress, refusing to fight for a balanced budget or for defunding Planned Parenthood or former President Barack Obama’s health care law.
Now both McConnell and Paul will need to determine how much more involved they want to get in an extended contest that will determine who will be their colleague next year.
Paul has already indicated he’s likely to suit up and head south.
“If you get into the runoff, I’m looking at my calendar,” Paul told Brooks on the Monday evening call. “I think I might want to come down to Alabama and help.”
This story was originally published May 24, 2022 at 3:50 PM.
