U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) has announced that he is not going to run for re-election. This signals the conclusion of a long and productive career as Alabama’s most influential advocate in Washington, D.C. It also opens the door to what could be a pretty crowded primary to replace him.
Will former U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions launch another campaign? Unlikely.
Will former U.S. Representative Bradley Byrne (R-Mobile) take another shot at a Senate seat? I don’t see it.
Will Shelby’s former chief of staff and current Business Council of Alabama CEO Katie Boyd Britt attempt to follow in her old boss’ footsteps as a master appropriator? There are lots of rumblings about her aspirations and backers.
While these players may or may not be chomping at the bit to get in this race in 2022, one guy probably will be in for sure.
Current U.S. Representative Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville) has run before, left the door open to run again and probably sees this as his last opportunity to make an impact in the U.S. Senate with multiple terms in office.
The national media, and their far less effective local counterparts, seem to think that Brooks is looking at censure, expulsion or even prosecution for speaking at a rally on January 6 — a full six hours before the embarrassing attack on the U.S. Capitol by some at that rally.
Censure is the only real option on the table, but even that seems unlikely, so the media and their Democrats in the state and elsewhere have launched hamfisted smear campaigns against Brooks.
The Alabama Democratic Party is selling “No Mo Bullshit” shirts, which surely got some laughs when they came up with it, as well as garnering some sweet retweets from California and New York. They may have even raised a few dozen dollars, but the electoral impact in this state of Alabama is probably close to zero.
But that’s not all. Out of state “Republicans” who seem to only target Republicans have targeted Brooks as well.
The idea that Brooks’ voters would want him to resign for supporting President Donald Trump and expecting voting irregularities to be investigated by Congress seems like one that overpaid consultants would come up with. Those consultants would likely get paid to work for whoever decided to challenge Brooks in another GOP House primary that would merely see him decimate their latest sacrificial lamb.
Brooks can not possibly be worried about this. In fact, in an appearance on WVNN’s “The Dale Jackson Show,” Brooks suggested he wanted more of these billboards to be placed — not in his district, but all over the state.
Some might view this as a joke, which it most certainly is, but it is also easy to see that Congressman Brooks knows that his current position among Alabama Republicans is pretty good — far better than it was during his 2017 run for U.S. Senate.
The comment by Brooks indicates that he believes that the misguided attacks by the national media and the irrelevant reporters in the Alabama political press don’t hurt him. They help him.
It also shows that Brooks is looking at that U.S. Senate seat for 2022, and now that the speculation about Senator Shelby has borne itself out, Brooks will probably run for the seat.
Dale Jackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 7-11 AM weekdays on WVNN and on Talk 99.5 from 10AM to noon.
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