Britt, Brooks head to runoff in Alabama Republican primary Senate race

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - Katie Britt and Rep. Mo Brooks are heading to a runoff election to decide who will be the Republican nominee in Alabama’s U.S. Senate race.

Britt, the former president and CEO of the Business Council of Alabama and former chief of staff to retiring U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, currently leads the Republican field by a wide margin with about 45% of the vote. However, with four Republican competitors in the hotly-contested race, she could not secure a majority of the vote to win outright.

“Who would have thought that this public-school girl from the Wiregrass would be standing up here leading into the United States Senate race,” Britt said. “If that is not the American dream, I don’t know what is.”

She’ll now face Brooks in a runoff election to fill Shelby’s seat, which will soon be vacated at the end of the current election cycle.

Brooks currently serves as a congressman representing Alabama’s Fifth District. He campaigned heavily on the endorsement of former President Donald Trump, but that endorsement was rescinded in March as Brooks struggled in the polls against Britt and a third strong competitor, veteran and former prisoner of war Mike Durant.

“I applaud Mike Durant, who honorably served in America’s military, helped build pivotal solutions, creating hundreds of jobs for Alabama citizens,” Brooks said.

Representative Brooks hopes he can secure the Alabama voters who were backing Durant. He stresses this is a crucial part of defeating Britt.

“Put the Mo Brooks, Mike Durant vote together and we’re over 50 percent. So you’ve got 50 something percent that rejected Katie Britt, what we have to do is get those two groups of voters working together as one and that’s the majority and that’s a winning number,” Brooks said.

Brooks currently has about 29% of the vote while Durant will miss the runoff with 24%. Two other GOP candidates picked up approximately 1% each.

Britt and Brooks will meet in the runoff election, set for June 21. The winner will face Democratic nominee Will Boyd in the general election.

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