Tommy Tuberville and President Trump were the winners in Tuesday’s Republican Senate primary runoff in Alabama.
Tuberville, a first-time politician and former Auburn University football coach, defeated former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions thanks, in part, to an endorsement from the president. The Associated Press projected Tuberville as the winner in the election about 90 minutes after the polls closed in Alabama.
Sessions — who was fighting for his political life — was also fending off the ire of the president. Sessions, who served a dozen years as a senator from Alabama before becoming Trump’s first attorney general in 2017, angered the president by recusing himself that year from the Russia investigation into the 2016 election.
Sessions, who was the first Republican senator to back Trump in the 2016 presidential election, was forced out as attorney general in November of 2018. Since then, he’s repeatedly served as a public punching bag for Trump.
Tuberville — who didn’t debate Sessions — didn’t miss an opportunity to showcase Trump’s endorsement. He now advances to the November general election to take on Sen. Doug Jones, who is the most vulnerable Democrat in the Senate in this year’s general election. The Republicans are looking to hold onto their 53-47 majority in the Senate, and Alabama could prove to be a real shot at flipping a Democrat-held seat.
