(Headline USA) Former President Donald Trump has endorsed Rep. Mo Brooks in Alabama‘s 2022 Senate race, siding with the conservative firebrand over other contenders in the state’s all-important Republican primary.
Trump announced his support in a statement shared by the Brooks campaign for the seat being vacated by six-term Sen. Richard Shelby.
“Few Republicans have as much COURAGE and FIGHT as Alabama Congressman Mo Brooks,” Trump said in the statement, adding that Brooks “will stand up for America First no matter what obstacles the Fake News Media, RINOs, or Socialist Democrats may place in his path.”
In a state where Trump won 62% of the vote in 2020, the former president’s backing is an important prize.
When Shelby, 86, announced that he won’t seek reelection to the seat he’s held since 1987, he ignited what is expected to be a messy GOP primary at a time when the national Republican Party is trying to chart a direction following Trump’s departure.
Brooks already faces Trump ambassador Lynda Blanchard in the primary.
Other potential candidates include Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill and Shelby’s former chief of staff, Katie Boyd Britt, who now heads an influential business lobby.
“I ask all Alabamians who share our America First vision to heed and honor President Trump’s request by joining our campaign.” Brooks said.
Brooks, 66, a five-term congressman and founder of the Conservative Freedom Caucus, has become a staunch Trump ally.
He was criticized for telling a rally preceding the January Capitol riot that it was time to “start taking down names and kicking ass.”
Brooks said the phrase was intended to fire up the crowd for the next election cycle and is being misconstrued as advocating the violence that followed.
Blanchard, a businesswoman who was Trump’s ambassador to Slovenia, said Wednesday that she’s remaining in the race and is steadfast in her commitment to Trump.
“I have been unwavering in my support of President Trump since the day he came down the escalator in June 2015. He is the greatest President of my lifetime, and I intend to go to Washington as the United States Senator from Alabama to represent the America First agenda that President Trump championed every day,” Blanchard said.
Adapted from reporting by Associated Press.
