Back in August, Rep. Brooks was leading the field in the race for a U.S. Senate seat by 23 points, with 40% of Alabamians saying they'd vote for him. Now the congressman is polling in third place, and Trump this week claimed the huge drop came after Brooks suggested voters need to move on from the 2020 election.
On Wednesday, Trump announced he was yanking his endorsement – and it would go to another Republican in the race – and the former president blamed Brooks’ drop in polls on newly hired campaign staff who convinced him to stop talking about the 2020 election.
Brooks has worn Trump’s endorsement like a badge during the GOP primary, where he has referred to himself as “MAGO Mo” on the campaign trail, but has was booed at a campaign stop last summer after he suggested voters need to "move forward" from 2020.
"I have not changed," Brooks said in a statement this week. "I am the only proven 'America First' candidate in this Senate race."
The GOP primary, which will be May 24, includes Brooks, Katie Britt, and Mike Durant.
Britt is the former chief of staff for Sen. Richard Shelby, whose retirement set up the current race.
Durant, a businessman, is the former U.S. Army helicopter pilot who was shot down and held prisoner in Somalia in 1993.
After the former president pulled his endorsement, Rep. Brooks did not hit back at Trump directly but said Trump had been “manipulated” by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
McConnell, the powerful and shrewd lawmaker, was no fan of swamp-draining Donald Trump.
Reacting to the political fight, talk show host Richard Randall tells AFN it is time for Republican voters to look ahead to 2024. That is difficult to do because Donald Trump is still supported by most Republican voters, he says, but Florida’s governor deserves a close look by those same voters as 2024 approaches.
“Ron DeSantis is all of the right stuff,” Randall says, “without some of the baggage that President Trump has.”
