(ABOVE: Dean Young discusses running for Congress again with WKRG)
Ali and Frazier had the Thrilla in Manila. Ali and Forman had the Rumble in the Jungle. Now it looks like South Alabama might get be getting The Brawl by the Bay, a rematch between Republican rivals Bradley Byrne and Dean Young.
Byrne dispatched of Young a month ago in the Republican primary runoff in Alabama’s first congressional district. Since then he has moved on to face Democrat Burton LeFlore in the general election, which is set to take place Dec. 17.
But Young did not go quietly into the night. He refused to concede and decided not to support his fellow Republican in defeat.
“I cannot bring myself to vote for someone who would mislead the people of south Alabama and the nation like Bradley Byrne has,” Young said after the results had come in. “And he should be ashamed of what he’s done. He should be. And therefore, you know — you reap what you sow and that will follow him — what he’s done and how he mischaracterized who I am and who I’m about. That will follow him.”
Mobile CBS affiliate WKRG aired a feature on Young on Thursday night, and it was apparent that his feelings had not changed much since election night.
“I don’t regret saying that,” Young quipped. “I do believe Bradley mislead the people — which is lying to the people of south Alabama and to the nation. If you’ve got to win by doing that, you don’t need to win… I’m making my decision as to whether to run against Bradley Byrne here in the next month or two. It’s not over, I can tell you that. I’ve had big donors come and say, ‘Listen, we don’t like the way that turned out. We don’t like how those Democrat votes came in here. We don’t like that you were outspent ten-to-one by the establishment and we’ll put money behind you.’”
Young quickly uploaded the WKRG segment to his YouTube page and shared it with numerous groups on Facebook, including the Baldwin County Young Republicans, Friends of Roy Moore, Alabama Citizens for Life, Azalea City Republican Women and the Alabama Patriots Tea Party.
With Alabama’s first congressional district being one of the most solidly Republican districts in the country, Byrne should easily defeat LeFlore in the upcoming general election. But from the sound of it, he might be right back on the campaign trail shortly thereafter.
Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims
