The footage is more than a decade old, but the words are unmistakable.
Mo Brooks, serving as a County Commissioner in 2009, is seen smiling at a Huntsville news camera, talking about a teenager named James Lomax entering his first political campaign:
“When I see this youth coming forward, it makes me thankful and hopeful for what our future is going to be like.”
The teenager was 18. He was running a long-shot bid for Huntsville City Council and would go on to lose. He was, in his own review, the youngest candidate ever to qualify for office in the city.
One could say he stayed on the course. He is now Alabama’s House Majority Whip.
Now, the same man who once publicly praised Lomax is attempting to prevent him a second term.
Mo Brooks, who turns 72 years old at the end of this month, is a former six-term congressman who spent decades in public office and on the ballot.
After multiple failed statewide bids and a stent as a paid columnist for AL.com, a news outlet he referred to as “left-wing” and “liberal” in 2022, he went into the Alabama Republican Party Headquarters on the last day of qualifying and filed paperwork to run for Alabama House District 20.
The seat is held by James Lomax. The same James Lomax he vouched for over the course of years in Huntsville.
This matchup has quickly become one of the most closely watched Republican primaries in the state. Not just because of the candidates, but because of the contrast it presents voters.
On one side is a younger incumbent who quickly earned the respect of his colleagues in the Alabama House, garnered important committee assignments, and built a record sponsoring passing legislation focused on tax cuts and cost of living issues.
On the other is a longtime political figure attempting to return to an office he held before the incumbent was born and admits that he only sponsored and passed one standalone bill while a member of Congress for twelve years.
Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter laid it out neatly at a recent talk at the Business Council of Alabama during this year’s session: “Mo Brooks has failed in every office he’s been in.”
For anyone who feels this is campaign fluff, it’s worth noting it could be argued: Mo lost the Madison County DA seat in 1992. Finished third for lieutenant governor in 2006. Lost a Senate primary to Luther Strange and Roy Moore in 2017.
He then gave up his safe Fifth District seat in 2022 to run for Senate again which resulted in him losing a runoff to Katie Britt by 26 points.
By his own count, he’s been a candidate for public office in House District 20 eighteen separate times. Ronald Reagan was in his first term when he first started running for office. He argues that his electoral attempts are a sign of successful public service.
His opinion on James Lomax could be said to mirror his fluctuating opinion on Donald Trump, whom Mo was critical of in 2016, then sought an endorsement from multiple times, and was most recently back to being critical of him in his gig at AL.com.
The most intriguing part of this saga was when he was asked about Trump at a Meeting of the University of Alabama College Republicans, “Why did you seek his endorsement if you had a moral opposition?” and his response was, “Because he had such a large influence over a large number of voters”.
It raises the question, was Brooks being authentic when he praised Lomax, or was it simply political calculus, much like his support for President Trump?
Brooks’ own words from 2009 serve as a kind of political time capsule, one that highlights both the passage of time and the shifting roles of these two men.
The future he once described has, in many ways, arrived.
Now, the voters of House District 20 are being asked to choose between it, or the past.
Grayson Everett is the editor in chief of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @Grayson270.
