By Chris Peeks February 15, 2022
The fight to capture the GOP nomination for the Alabama senate seat is a power struggle between the establishment wing and the Trump wing of the Republican party. Katie Britt is backed by deeply entrenched Washington insiders, while Mo Brooks has President Trump's support. Which brings us to an interesting question, why are each of them still only pulling a third of the vote in recent polls?
Britt not only has the backing of the DC elite, but she also has the support of the local media. She gets handled with kid gloves, and Jeffrey Poor of the YHN recently posted an article about Britt leading in a new census. He even used a fancy deceptive name for the type of survey used instead of calling it what it is, a push poll. Even after using those tactics, she still only garnered 43%. Warning signals should be going off inside the Britt campaign. Despite all of her fundraising and backing, she is still only hovering around 30% in the voter questionnaires.
Brooks has name recognition, President Trump's backing, and his congressional district gives him a strong base. One would think Mo would be riding high. Yet he is capturing only 30-35% of the vote, according to the latest samplings. Where's the rest of the electorate leaning?
Enter Mike Durant. He's coming in a solid third in the canvasses, and some sources tell me that he's actually in second. What do we know about him? We know that he is not Brooks or Brit, and that's important. Why might you ask?
Alabama voters have an independent streak that has elected many dark-horse candidates. In 1978 political novice Fob James went down in political lore when he pulled a surprise upsetting "The Three B's." Two years later, Jeremiah Denton became the first Republican senator elected from Alabama. Denton took down one of the state's oldest political dynasties, winning a razor-thin victory over Jim Folsom Jr. He, in turn, would suffer a shocking defeat in 1986 when running for re-election. Guy Hunt, in that same year, became the benefactor of a brutal Democratic primary that made him the state's first Republican governor since reconstruction. In 1994, for the second time, Fob James pulled a shocker winning the governor's race when incumbent Jim Folsom Jr once more found himself losing to an underdog candidate. An obscure dermatologist that served in the legislature captured the governorship in 2010. In the general election that year, a little-known state treasurer named Kay Ivey won the lieutenant governor's race over, you guessed it, incumbent Jim Folsom Jr. Lastly, let's not forget when Roy Moore defeated Luther Strange in 2017 despite The latter getting President Trump's endorsement.
Right now, Mike Durant is sitting in the catbird seat. While Brooks and Britt battle it out, he gains a little momentum every day. Don't be surprised in the final two weeks when Durant opens up a commanding lead over the two. And remember you heard it here first.
Chris Peeks
Reporter and Columnist
Alabama Political Contributor
Good read