Republican firebrand Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who is one of President Trump’s staunchest allies, is reportedly mulling a 2020 U.S. Senate bid in neighboring Alabama.
“He’s talking about running for Senate in Alabama. They have a one-day residency requirement there,” one Republican congressman who knows Gaetz well said to The Hill. “POTUS would probably endorse him.”
Rep. Bradley Byrne, the sole Republican to have officially entered the race for the party’s nomination against Sen. Doug Jones, is pro-Trump, but lacks Gaetz’s name recognition. Jones defeated controversial former Judge Roy Moore, who was accused of sexual assault, in a special election for the seat formerly occupied by Jeff Sessions, who had left office to become attorney general. Jones is the first Democrat to represent the state in the Senate since 1992.
According to Alabama election law, an individual can establish the residency needed to run for statewide office in one day. A candidate also needs to be at least 30 years old. Gaetz, 36, could easily clear the minimum requirements for a run.
Gaetz’s Florida district borders eastern Alabama. His hometown, Fort Walton Beach, Fla., is a mere hour-and-a-half drive from Mobile, Ala., the third-largest city in the state. That proximity and the demographic similarities between Gaetz’s current constituency and Republican voters in Alabama would make it easier for him to compete in a statewide Alabama race, said one of his Florida congressional colleagues.
“The Florida Panhandle is just like Mississippi and Alabama — it’s Trump country, and he’s probably got one of the best districts for Trump. Sometimes that’s all it takes,” explained the fellow GOP Florida congressman. “He can probably win.”
“I had a few people make mention to me that Alabama has a very short residency requirement but it’s not something I’ve looked at myself,” Gaetz told The Hill in an interview this week. “I think that my most likely path would be to seek reelection in the House.”
A source close to Gaetz’s team, however, told The Washington Examiner that the reports are blown out of proportion and don’t accurately reflect what he meant when we said in the interview that some lawmakers had approached him about a potential run.
“I don’t think the headline in the Hill story did justice” to what Gaetz said in the interview, the source said.
Gaetz’s congressional office declined to comment when reached out by The Washington Examiner.
