MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) – Former President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw his endorsement of U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks has scrambled the Alabama Republican primary for Senate, leaving the two other frontrunners, Katie Boyd Britt and Mike Durant, competing for his nod.
Britt is a former head of a state business group with impressive fundraising totals, while Durant is a businessman best known as the helicopter pilot who was shot down and held prisoner in the 1993 “Black Hawk Down” incident in Somalia.
“The big question is what happens now,” said David Mowery, an Alabama-based political consultant. If Trump endorses one over the other, it would be a significant boost to their campaign, he said.
“It puts Durant or Britt in a position to potentially win without a runoff. … So, the question for those two really is, ‘Who is going to get it?'” Mowery said.
Both Britt and Durant have met with Trump recently and both bill themselves as the natural heir to the endorsement.