Alabama’s open U.S. Senate race is heating up, with retiring Sen. Richard Shelby pledging to donate up to $6 million to a super PAC supporting his hand-selected candidate, Katie Britt. Britt is Shelby’s former staffer who is going head-to-head against 45th President Donald Trump’s endorsed candidate, Congressman Mo Brooks.
Politico reports:
The retiring Alabama senator is preparing to pour as much as $6 million into the race by transferring his campaign coffers into a super PAC supporting Katie Britt, a former Shelby aide who is running for the Senate seat. She’s locked in a three-way battle with a stumbling Brooks (R-Ala.) and surging Army veteran Mike Durant, and Shelby confirmed in an interview he’ll do what it takes to ensure that Britt emerges from the May primary with a place in a runoff.
“I’m going to give it all away sooner or later. I’m going to help her, transfer it to a super PAC,” said Shelby, who has nearly $10 million in his campaign account and more than $6 million in a separate leadership PAC. He added that Britt is “doing well right now. Mo Brooks is dropping, you see that.”
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Unless one of the candidates clears 50 percent in the May primary, there will be a runoff. And eliminating Brooks and leaving the race to Durant and Britt would amount to a “no-lose” proposition for Republicans, said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who serves on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s leadership team.
“People know what [Brooks] was like in the House. And I think there’s a general desire to have people that will be constructive and that we can work with. So that’s my view, and that’s probably the view of most of the conference,” Cornyn said.
