Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday endorsed Rep. Mo Brooks’ campaign for US Senate in Alabama, supporting the controversial GOP congressman who stood by him during two impeachments and led the House effort to object to the 2020 election results.
“Few Republicans have as much COURAGE and FIGHT as Alabama Congressman Mo Brooks,” Trump said in a statement.
Serving in his sixth term in the House, Brooks is seeking the Senate seat left open by retiring GOP Sen. Richard Shelby.
With Trump’s endorsement, Brooks will likely lock up the GOP nomination and be seen as the race’s front-runner given his ties to the former President’s supporters and the fact that Trump won Alabama by 26 points last fall.
Now out of office, Trump has signaled he plans to use his popularity to get behind Senate candidates in his mold — to the fears of some GOP operatives tasked with winning back the Senate who worry that Trump will back candidates who could struggle in statewide races.
Brooks has been a strong ally of Trump’s and was one of the first congressional members to publicly state he would object to the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election. He also boosted Trump’s baseless claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election.
In his endorsement, the former Republican President said Brooks “will protect our Second Amendment, combat the Biden open borders agenda” and “is fighting for voter integrity (like few others).”
At the January 6 “Stop the Steal” rally, Brooks told the crowd, “Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass.” Hours later, the pro-Trump mob stormed and ransacked the US Capitol to try to stop Congress from certifying Biden’s victory.
CNN previously reported that his inflammatory remarks led some House Republicans to privately advocate for stripping Brooks from his committee assignments for some time.
Brooks announced his campaign for Senate last month, with an introduction by former Trump adviser Stephen Miller. Before jumping into the race, Brooks had spoken to Trump about running for Senate, CNN previously reported.
In 2017, Trump backed Sen. Luther Strange, who was appointed to fill Jeff Sessions’ seat and later defeated by Judge Roy Moore in the special election GOP primary. He then endorsed Moore, despite the sexual allegations against the Alabama candidate, in the special general election, but Moore lost out to Democratic Sen. Doug Jones.
In 2020, Trump endorsed former Auburn football Tommy Tuberville over Sessions, with whom he had a falling out, in the GOP Senate primary and the then-President’s public attacks against his former attorney general ultimately hurt Sessions’ Senate campaign.
