Tommy Tuberville finished first in Alabama’s Republican primary but garnered only enough votes to prompt a runoff with Sessions.
President Donald Trump enthusiastically tweeted his support for former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville over his former attorney general, tweeting that he was “a REAL LEADER who will never let MAGA/KAG, or our Country, down!”
Tuberville finished first in Alabama’s Republican primary but garnered only enough votes to prompt a runoff with Sessions on March 31. The winner will challenge Democrat Doug Jones for the hotly contested Senate seat in November.
The two campaigns at times battled for who could genuflect to the president more, with Tuberville running ads saying “God sent us Donald Trump,” and Sessions sporting red MAGA caps and reminding listeners that he was Trump’s first Senate endorsement in the 2016 Republican presidential primary.
Trump appears to have held a grudge against Sessions since his former cabinet member recused himself from the probe into Russian political interference at the start of the Mueller investigation. It clouded his first two years of office, and he fired Sessions immediately following the midterm elections. Trump agreed not to endorse anyone during the primary build-up, but last week his old grudge against Sessions bubbled up on Twitter the day after primary voting took place.
“This is what happens to someone who loyally gets appointed Attorney General of the United States & then doesn’t have the wisdom or courage to stare down & end the phony Russia Witch Hunt,” Trump tweeted last week. “Recuses himself on FIRST DAY in office, and the Mueller Scam begins!”
Emiene Wright Emiene Wright is associate editor at Cardinal & PIne. Before that she was on the 24-hour news desk of the Miami Herald and the Detroit Free Press, and her writing has been featured in Crisis, the Charlotte Observer, and Our State magazine.
