As voters inch closer to making a final decision as to which candidate they will cast their ballot in favor of in the upcoming U.S. Senate GOP primary election, two of the race’s leading contenders are taking direct aim at one another in competing television spots.
Until this point, only super PACs supporting the race’s top three candidates have launched attack ads against opposing GOP rivals. That trend ended last week as former Business Council of Alabama head Katie Britt took a shot at U.S. Army veteran Mike Durant over his past comments relating to the Second Amendment.
Britt’s ad slams Durant for comments he made during a 2011 speech at the U.S. Army War College regarding a foreign citizenry’s relationship with an occupying military. The speech detailed actions the U.S. military took while Durant was deployed in East Africa during the Somali Civil War.
“I’m Katie Britt, and I will always defend the Second Amendment. New Hampshire liberal Mike Durant won’t,” the ad features Britt saying before transitioning to a clip from Durant’s speech.
“The first thing that needs to be done is to disarm the population,” Durant says. “If we could do that in some of our U.S. cities, that would be a pretty good step towards law and order.”
Britt concludes, “Mr. Durant, our Second Amendment is what ensures law and order — protecting us from government tyranny and criminals. I approve this message because I’ll stand up to the gun-grabbers in D.C. And Mike Durant — he’ll join them.”
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While drawing heat from his opponents over the comments, Durant has maintained that his words were “mischaracterized” and defended his Second Amendment stance by saying that he “shot more rounds every month [in Somalia] than most people shoot in their lives.”
Shortly after Britt’s ad dropped, the Durant campaign went on the offensive in a TV spot of its own.
The ad hits Britt over a contribution that was made to a super PAC supporting her candidacy by a donor that has made public statements decrying the Alabama Legislature’s 2019 passage of a pro-life bill.
Durant’s ad also takes issue with Britt over a University of Alabama student government association (SGA) resolution, which passed during her tenure as SGA president, enabling morning-after pills to become available to students at the university’s health center.
“The ads for Katie Britt are paid for by a big pro-abortion donor. Why? Because Katie Britt has a pro-abortion record,” says the ad’s voice-over. “She let abortion pills be supplied to teenagers, supported pro-abortion candidates for office and refused to say if she’d stop Biden’s election which resulted in a pro-abortion court justice. Our next senator could cement a pro-life majority for generations. Innocent babies deserve better than Katie Britt.”
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In a recent response to the claims, Britt told 1819 News that she “had no control of” the resolution as SGA president and asserted that she was “100% pro-life,” something she has maintained throughout the entirety of the race. Additionally, the question was raised as to whether Britt held the authority as SGA head to issue a presidential veto.
Britt and Durant will face U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville) in the Republican primary May 24, 2022. Should no candidate earn a plurality of the vote, a runoff election will occur June 21, 2022.
Dylan Smith is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL
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