HUNTSVILLE — This past Friday, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) headlined two campaign events on behalf of U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville) ahead of Alabama’s U.S. Senate runoff election.
During Brooks’ campaign townhall at Four Points by Sheraton in Huntsville International Airport, Paul spoke to a well-attended room of Brooks faithful.
The premise of Paul’s address centered around the assertion that simply electing a Republican to the upper chamber of Congress was insufficient. The firebrand senator insisted that primary elections were important in ensuring that the GOP nominee lived up to what he deemed to be a “conservative.”
Outlining what he saw as the need of electing Republicans of his conservative mold, Paul contended that Alabama’s next senator should not serve as a “rubber stamp” for Senate GOP leadership.
When asked by Yellowhammer News to expand on why he saw the need to intervene in Alabama’s U.S Senate race, Paul listed multiple votes in which a handful of Republicans failed to join his legislative attempts to enact conservative reforms and maintained that Brooks would join his efforts.
“I mentioned a couple things in the speech where we had lost Republicans on: Balancing the budget in five years, I think we can count absolutely on Mo Brooks on that; Repealing Obamacare, we lost five Republicans on that; Firing [Dr. Anthony] Fauci,” noted Paul. “So these are three issues where we lost Republicans, and that’s why it makes a difference who you get in the primary.”
.@RandPaul on his support of @MoBrooks in #ALSen race:
“[I] don't think Alabama deserves a rubber stamp. I think Alabama deserves somebody with a proven track record as a conservative." pic.twitter.com/lnMvOgJOb4
— Dylan Smith (@DylanSmithAL) June 20, 2022
Paul then asserted that the North Alabama congressman was “unafraid” to buck his own party’s leadership and proclaimed that Brooks held a “proven track record” of doing so.
“And I think without question, Mo is unafraid,” declared Kentucky’s junior senator. “He’s not afraid of Republican leadership or Democrat leadership. And I think many people go to Washington beholden to Republican leadership and they become a rubber stamp. I don’t think Alabama deserves a rubber stamp. I think Alabama deserves somebody with a proven track record as a conservative.”
“Look, you look at every conservative group across the board, who rates the legislature and looks at all the votes, and Mo Brooks will be in the top one percent as far as conservative ratings in any group. So that’s why I’m here. I’m not just campaigning for anybody, I’m campaigning for real conservatives — the real stuff,” Paul concluded pointing in Brooks’ direction.
Brooks will face former Business Council of Alabama CEO Katie Britt on Tuesday in the GOP primary runoff contest.
The Republican Party’s nominee will face Democrat Will Boyd in the November 8 general election to determine who will hold the seat currently occupied by retiring U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Tuscaloosa).
Dylan Smith is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL
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