Will Jeff Sessions Run Senate Again?
WASHINGTON — Former Chaser General Jeff Sessions, whom President Donald Trump ousted in 2018, lost his bid to reclaim his old U.Due south. Senate seat from Alabama.
Sessions conceded Tuesday dark and urged Alabamians to stand backside former Auburn University football game jitney Tommy Tuberville equally the Republican nominee.
The Associated Press called the primary contest for Tuberville, who had been endorsed by Trump, at around 8:20 p.thou. local time. Polls closed at seven p.g.
Sessions congratulated Tuberville in a spoken language to supporters in Mobile. "He is our Republican nominee," Sessions said. "We must stand up behind him in November."
Trump tweeted an enthusiastic reaction. "Tommy Tuberville WON big against Jeff Sessions. Will exist a GREAT Senator for the incredible people of Alabama," he tweeted in part.
The president besides attacked Jones as a "terrible Senator."
The winner of Tuesday's runoff will have on Jones, a vulnerable Democrat in the Senate, in November. Jones won the seat in 2017 in a special election to replace Sessions after Trump tapped him to be his first attorney general.
Sessions held the Senate seat for xx years, just he left it to serve as attorney general, a movement that made sense later on Sessions was the first senator to back Trump's presidential bid. Their relationship soured when Sessions wouldn't arbitrate in the investigation into Trump'south 2016 entrada dealings with Russia.
Trump endorsed Tuberville in March and repeatedly attacked Sessions on Twitter, urging Alabamians non to send him back to Washington.
Polls had consistently shown Sessions trailing Tuberville, 65, an Arkansas native who has never held elected office.
Tuberville congratulated Sessions and his supporters for a hard-fought campaign, and he said that despite the outcome, "now we're all on the same squad."
"Being a football charabanc, I know when you become into a bowl game and you lose, 1 team moves on and the other 1 doesn't," Tuberville said. "But you're in the same conference, simply yous pull for each other, fifty-fifty afterward that."
Tuberville said he had recently spoken with Sessions, who he said pledged his support. Tuberville thanked Sessions for his many years of service to the state.
The winner of Tuesday'south runoff will take on Jones, the about vulnerable Senate Democrat, in Nov. Jones won his seat in 2017 in a special election to replace Sessions after Trump tapped him to be his kickoff attorney general.
Sessions was forced out as attorney general after months of public anger from Trump over his decision to recuse himself from Robert Mueller'due south investigation into Russian efforts to influence the 2016 entrada — a movement the president never forgave him for.
Since Sessions announced he was running for the Senate seat, he had spent much of his time trying to convince his onetime constituents that despite Trump's repeated attacks against him — from calling him "slime" to "not mentally qualified" to "the biggest mistake" of his presidency — he could still exist trusted to defend the president.
Sessions remarked on his relationship with Trump in his concession spoken language Tuesday night, maxim his decision to recuse himself "saved the president's bacon."
"On recusal, I followed the constabulary," Sessions said. "I did the right matter, and I saved the president'due south bacon in the procedure. Any other action to endeavour to squelch an investigation in that environment would not accept worked. It actually would take been a catastrophe."
"I leave with no regrets," he said. "And I was honored to serve the people of Alabama in the Senate, and I was extraordinarily proud of the accomplishments we had every bit attorney general."
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Political strategists had said Tuberville'due south outsider status and his time every bit football coach at Auburn could help carry him to a win Tuesday.
"The outsider is now who has the upper manus in every race these days," said David Mowery, a political strategist based in Montgomery who has worked for Republicans and Democrats. "It'due south hard to turn that into a negative in 2020 Republican primaries."
Tuberville is also remembered "fondly from a time when Auburn football game was successful," said David Hughes, a political science professor at Auburn University at Montgomery, "and people in the South really do take SEC football seriously."
Sessions and Tuberville entered the runoff after neither won a majority in the March three primary, with Tuberville leading with 33.4 percent of the vote and Sessions coming in 2nd at 31.vi percentage. The runoff was initially scheduled for March 31, but it was delayed considering of the coronavirus pandemic, prolonging the race by more iii months.
In Texas, former White House physician Ronny Jackson won the Republican nomination for a U.S. Firm of Representatives seat, the AP reported.
Jackson, a retired Navy rear admiral, defeated Josh Winegarner in a principal runoff in the deeply red Texas Panhandle, the AP reported.
Also in Texas in a Democratic primary Tuesday, MJ Hegar, a erstwhile Air Force helicopter airplane pilot who virtually won a House seat in 2018, vanquish country Sen. Royce West to secure the nomination for U.Due south. Senate, according to the AP.
The primary was to determine which Democrat would confront Republican incumbent Sen. John Cornyn.
Lauren Egan reported from Washington and Phil Helsel from Los Angeles.
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Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/jeff-sessions-tries-overcome-trump-opposition-alabama-senate-runoff-n1233779
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