Jeff Sessions poised for comeback and still cheering Trump

Then came his recusal from the Russia affair and the wave of nasty Trump insults that led to his ouster. He ran to win his seat back but fell a bit short and is in a July runoff with former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville, who won the GOP primary, 33%-31%, in the fight to take on embattled but well-funded Democratic Sen. Doug Jones.

And Trump, famous for holding a grudge, endorsed the coach, convincing many Washington Republicans that the sun had set on the 73-year-old Sessions. A mid-March poll showed Tuberville leading Sessions 52%-40%, but that was before the virus crisis hit hard and Gov. Kay Ivey delayed the planned March 31 runoff.

In a big way, the virus has helped to focus attention on Sessions’s bread-and-butter issues — immigration, jobs, China’s ruthlessness — and cut a path to a potential turnaround.

And with support from the state’s senior senator, Richard Shelby, endorsements from law enforcement, the National Rifle Association, immigration advocates, and the anti-abortion Family Research Council, and with fundraising nearly equal to Tuberville despite Trump’s endorsement, his supporters see a comeback in the making.

“I feel good about where we are,” said Sessions. “I’m reminding people that I was there on those issues. And those issues I advocated became the basis for why I supported President Trump and still do. … I’m the same person I was.”

Despite their split and the Trump campaign’s demand he stop tying himself to the president in campaign materials, Sessions harbors no grudge with Trump and sees a chance again to help the president build the border wall, kick-start the economy, and shut China down. “I’m cheering what he is doing,” he said.

Still, Trump’s team and the GOP Senate establishment think the endorsement of Tuberville was fatal. Alabama Republicans, however, don’t take orders well and have twice rejected Trump-endorsed Senate candidates.

“President Trump is very, very popular. I want him to succeed because he’s advocating for values I believe in and my constituents believe in,” said Sessions, adding, “Alabamians can vote for President Trump and for me.”

The coronavirus has helped Sessions in his battle with Tuberville, who isn’t as hard-edged on China and immigration as the former senator.

“Sessions,” said foreign policy analyst and China hawk Jed Babbin, “is the sort of calm, competent conservative in whom people can have confidence. He’s a very smart guy with a lot of common sense.”

Law enforcement also said Sessions has the experience it likes. Hoss Mack, the sheriff of Baldwin County, which stretches from Mobile, Alabama, to nearby Pensacola, Florida, told me, “I believe he possesses the unique experience that our country needs in the Senate right now, especially faced with our national and international situations.”

At the end of our 30-minute interview, I asked Sessions why, after 39 years of public service, he wants back the seat he left to become attorney general.

“It’s not ego,” he said in his trademark, folksy drawl. “I’m really, really convinced that the things I have fought for are at a pivotal point. And the things that I believe about America are at a decisive time that, if we can advance the president’s agenda effectively and get our Congress off its duff, we can accomplish some things of historic importance that I have fought for my whole career.”