Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks, the architect of the GOP’s challenge to Electoral College vote counts, is readying a Senate bid to replace retiring Sen. Richard Shelby, according to insiders.
Brooks, who earlier talked with former President Donald Trump about a bid, appears to have Team Trump’s support.
Notably, his expected Monday announcement will feature former top Trump adviser Stephen Miller, who previously was former Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions’s top communicator and policy aide.
Please join me and @StephenM for a rally and announcement this Monday night in Huntsville! pic.twitter.com/8ZchrGOSwj
— Mo Brooks (@MoBrooks_) March 18, 2021
Brooks said on his campaign Twitter account that Miller will be joining him for a “campaign rally and announcement” at Huntsville’s Bullet and Barrel gun range.
It is unlikely that he will instead announce plans for reelection to his House seat.
The six-term lawmaker has proven to be a steady and reliable conservative in Congress and was the first to lay out a challenge to state electoral vote counts considered fraudulent in the 2020 elections.
In a series of floor speeches, the lawmaker from Huntsville spelled out a path to challenging the election, one similar to what Democrats tried in 2005 and 2017 to deny former President George W. Bush and Trump electoral votes.
That effort occurred on Jan. 6 but was overshadowed by the violent protests at the Capitol by pro-Trump supporters following a rally near the White House that Brooks spoke at.
Two House Democrats sought to punish Brooks, claiming he helped incite the mobs, a charge Brooks rejected in a forceful statement that also whacked the media’s constant attacks on him.
This month he demanded that his critics apologize for blaming him for the protests. “In order to restore my name against the malicious attacks, I demand that each and every Socialist Democrat, Fake News Media outlet, and RINO ‘Surrender Caucus’ Republican who sullied my good name by accusing me of inciting violence, publicly apologize and retract their statements. If any of these defamers are honorable and honest, they will do just that. However, for obvious reasons, I will not hold my breath awaiting their apology,” said Brooks, a former prosecutor.
Should he run for the Senate, it will be his second try. In 2017, when Trump selected Sessions as his attorney general, Brooks entered the special election GOP primary that was eventually won by Roy Moore. Moore lost to Democrat Doug Jones.
Having the support of Team Trump should help. Trump won Alabama with 62% of the vote in 2016 and 2020.
On his own, Brooks, a cancer survivor, has won races with ease and is a regular at local gatherings. He was practicing with other members of the GOP baseball team when a gunman opened fire June 14, 2017, severely injuring Rep. Steve Scalise.
