MONTGOMERY, Ala.—Alabama voters turned out on June 21 to decide between Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) and Katie Britt in the U.S. Senate Republican primary runoff election.
The latest polls show Britt in the lead by 48 percent to Brooks’ 36 percent.
These figures match the trends of the Alabama primary. Britt got the most primary votes, although she didn’t reach the 50 percent mark.
The voters that trickle into locations like Huntingdon College’s polling center will determine which of the two candidates reaches the general election in November.
On June 21, voters in Montgomery seemed evenly divided between Britt and Brooks. The winner of the race between the two will likely win the general election in deep-red Alabama.
“I’m not a fan of Katie Britt,” said Montgomery voter Shirley Krothapalli. “I want someone who’s actually going to work.”
Krothapalli added that she planned to vote for Brooks.
Another voter, Cindy DeLongchamp, said she planned to vote for Britt because she knew her personally and knew she had a strong work ethic.
“She is a fellow parent at Montgomery Academy, and I’ve seen her work very, very hard during her campaign,” she said.
Although Britt received an endorsement from former president Donald Trump, DeLongchamp said the endorsement made no difference for her.
“No, I decided a long time ago to vote for Katie,” she said.
Britt’s last-minute Trump endorsement was the last in a long line of endorsement disappointments for Brooks.
Brooks started the race with a Trump endorsement, which Trump revoked after Brooks made a speech asking voters to focus on the next election instead of continuing to debate the 2020 election.
Then, Brooks missed an endorsement from primary candidate Mike Durant. If Durant’s voters had all swung to Brooks, it would have given him a significant advantage in the run-off.
Finally, Trump endorsed Britt. This move was even more surprising because political action committees affiliated with Trump’s rival Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have spent immense amounts of money on campaign ads for Britt.
But according to Alabama voters interviewed by The Epoch Times, Trump’s last-minute endorsement flips had little impact on their votes.
“It’s been a bunch of noise,” said Britt voter Mose Stuart. The whole issue with Donald Trump endorsement, I think he himself has rendered it a little bit meaningless.”
Stuart said that Trump has often endorsed candidates who lead in polls late in the race. This approach means that Trump-endorsed candidates usually win because Trump only endorses people who are already winning.
“I’m not even sure that it would have mattered in this election,” he said.
Voter Vanessa Askren said she was voting for Brooks because he impressed her in an interview on Glenn Beck’s show.
“He sounded very intelligent, very savvy on the economics of everything,” she said.
Several voters mentioned concerns over the rising cost of energy, the lack of border security, a bad economy, the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the increasing power of China.
Askren said she believed the next few elections were very important.
“I think this election and 2024 are for the survival of this country,” she said. “Our liberty is going away, and I don’t think people realize it.”
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