U.S. Senator Kamala Harris’ (D-CA) presidential campaign on Wednesday sent out a fundraising email based on former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions preparing to announce a bid to return to the Senate.
While the email solicited funds, it also pledged to split each contribution raised between Harris and U.S. Senator Doug Jones (D-AL), who currently holds Sessions’ former seat.
“Doug Jones is a great Senator, a strong defender of civil rights, and a fighter for the people of Alabama. Let’s re-elect Doug and make sure Jeff Sessions never sets foot on the Senate floor again,” the fundraising pitch said.
The email, signed by Harris herself, accused Sessions of “decades of systemic racism and bigotry,” criticizing him for his time as attorney general.
Harris claimed, “Sessions was the extremist architect of some of this Administration’s most damaging actions.”
Harris cited Sessions’ hardline anti-illegal immigration stance as a reason for opposing him.
“I fought Jeff Sessions every step of the way, voting against his nomination as Attorney General and calling for his resignation when it became clear he lied under oath to protect the President,” she asserted.
“My friend Doug Jones is a great Senator,” Harris added. “Doug Jones is everything Jeff Sessions is not.”
The email concluded by vaguely thanking donors for stepping up to “defend our democracy and our civil rights.”
Harris also called Sessions an extremist, a phrase that has been used by the Jones campaign on social media and in emails in recent days to bash Sessions’ now-imminent candidacy.
A Wednesday evening Jones campaign email said, “Jeff Sessions is too extreme, too out of touch, and too divisive for Alabama.”
The Jones campaign email called Sessions “hyper-partisan,” adding, “We could go on and on about Sessions’ extreme record. How horrible his record on civil rights is and how divisive he was as Attorney General. You’ll hear a lot about that during this campaign.”
Interestingly, the Jones email used essentially the same wording as the Harris fundraising pitch at one point, remarking, “Let’s make sure Jeff Sessions never sets foot in the U.S. Senate again.”
The Harris fundraising help comes as Californians continue to comprise Jones’ biggest donor base.
In the past three quarters, Jones raised 77%, 88% and 88%, respectively, of his individual itemized contributions from outside the state of Alabama.
New Yorkers have been Jones’ second-largest collective source of funding.
Sessions will enter a crowded primary field led by former Auburn University head football coach Tommy Tuberville, Congressman Bradley Byrne (AL-01), former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, Secretary of State John Merrill and State Rep. Arnold Mooney (R-Indian Springs).
The qualifying deadline for Alabama’s GOP primary is Friday at 5:00 p.m. CT.
Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
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