Desperately trying to make up ground in his runoff, former Alabama senator Jeff Sessions challenged frontrunner Tommy Tuberville to a series of debates Monday in their bid to take back a seat once regarded as a Republican lock.
Mr. Sessions, who fell out of favor with President Trump after stepping aside from the “Russia collusion” investigation in 2017, trailed Mr. Tuberville in Alabama’s GOP primary in March. His surprising loss to the former Auburn football coach and the havoc COVID-19 has played with any sort of traditional political campaigning, has only made Mr. Sessions’ attempts to close the gap harder.
The winner of the runoff between the two men, now scheduled for July 14, will face Democratic Sen. Doug Jones, considered the most vulnerable incumbent in Congress after winning his seat by a razor-thin margin in an unusual 2017 special election.
“I challenge you to a series of five debates before the voters of Alabama, one for each major media market in our state,” Mr. Sessions statement Monday read.
Mr. Tuberville remains something of a risky unknown, according to the Sessions camp. Mr. Jones won his narrow victory after the national media focused on the scandal surrounding his GOP opponent, former state supreme court justice Roy Moore who stood accused of sexually assaulting a young woman decades ago.
“Anyone representing Alabama needs to be fully vetted before they are trusted to represent Alabama Republicans in a race against Doug Jones,” the statement said. “I’ve been fully vetted, over and over again. The national Democratic Party tried to find ‘dirt’ on me when I helped President Trump win the 2016 election, and again when he nominated me for Attorney General. They came up empty, because there’s nothing there.”
There was no immediate response from the Tuberville campaign, which did not reply to a request for comment.
While the results of the March voting were close – Mr. Tuberville edged Mr. Sessions 33-31% of the vote – the fact Mr. Sessions barely cracked 30% and finished second are ominous signs for his campaign, according to southern political experts.
“I’d say ‘dead in the water,’” said John Couvillon, head of JMC Enterprises, a polling and political research firm in Louisiana.
A second-place finish that barely cracks the 30% threshold is a disquieting performance for any politician with Mr. Sessions’ resume and name recognition, Mr. Couvillon noted, and the most recent surveys don’t signal a surge in support.
Two polls since March, conducted by Cygnal, show Mr. Sessions slipping further behind. One week after the original primary, Mr. Sessions trailed Mr. Tuberville by 12 points, and that margin had grown to 23 points last week.
In addition, the July turnout is unlikely to approach that of March, when President Trump was on the primary ballot, and Mr. Trump’s subsequent endorsement of Mr. Tuberville won’t help Mr. Sessions, according to Mr. Couvillon.
“This is a very steep, uphill climb for Sessions,” he said. “His most recent number – 32 percent – is almost identical to the vote he got in March and he’s now gone crossways with Trump. “I would say that at this point it looks like Sessions is in deep, deep trouble.”
