Donald Trump’s endorsement and un-endorsement of Representative Mo Brooks has been one of the big subplots of the Alabama Senate Republican primary. After Trump un-endorsed him, Brooks got serious about campaigning and ended up surging out of a dead-end third place in the polls to make the June 21 runoff against Katie Boyd Britt. He remains in a hole, however; Britt is seen by Alabama observers as being in the driver’s seat after getting 45 percent in the initial vote, 15 points ahead of Brooks. She won’t debate Brooks again.
Brooks is now openly begging for Trump to re-endorse him, tweeting, “MAGA Nation, here is my story. Join me in asking President Trump to #ReEndorseMo so that we can send a message to Mitch McConnell by sending a real America First conservative to the Senate on June 21.” But given that Brooks has offended Trump by backing off the claim that the 2020 election was stolen, and that Trump has no interest in putting his name behind a likely losing race, the odds are grim. Here’s another sign: Steve Cortes, a prominent Trump campaign spokesman and Trump loyalist, was in Alabama yesterday, and tweeted:
Meeting voters with the next senator from Alabama, @KatieBrittforAL, and her husband @wesleybritt
The next generation of America First… pic.twitter.com/SmXCxbIbVa
— Steve Cortes (@CortesSteve) June 7, 2022
Now, maybe Cortes did this on his own without Trump’s explicit say-so, but it is hard to imagine that a guy as plugged into Trump’s inner circle as he is would be publicly blessing Britt if a Trump re-endorsement of Brooks was in the offing.