MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The runoff field for a U.S. Senate seat was set Wednesday in Alabama, a state that also will have a high-profile race for governor this fall and congressional seats that could be scrambled amid a wave of Republican redistricting.
Former Navy SEAL Jared Hudson advanced Wednesday to a June 16 runoff against U.S. Rep. Barry Moore for the Republican nomination for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat. The Democratic Senate field was
set in Tuesday's primary.
Hudson positioned himself as a political outsider and narrowly edged Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall.
“We made history last night, Alabama!” Hudson wrote on social media. He added that, “DC money is going to have to punch a lot harder if they want to stop this grassroots movement.”
President Donald Trump has endorsed Moore, a three-term congressman who said the state deserves a “Trump conservative” in the Senate. If Hudson is elected, he has promised to be “a warrior for President Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda."
“We’re going to win this thing, and God’s going to bless this great nation,” Moore told supporters after advancing to the runoff.
On the Democratic side, business owner Dakarai Larriett and lawyer Everett Wess are heading to a runoff, but either will face an uphill climb in deep-red Alabama.
The four are competing for the seat being vacated by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who won his primary Tuesday as the Republican nominee in the governor's race. He will face former U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, a Democrat, in a rematch of the U.S. Senate race won by Tuberville six years ago.
Jones is the last Democrat to win a statewide election in Alabama. Both candidates nodded to their looming rematch in their victory speeches Tuesday night.
“I’m asking all of you to give us a chance, to join us, to be that force for change,” Jones said.
He was scheduled to make an appearance Wednesday in Birmingham with Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who chairs the Democratic Governors Association.
Tuberville framed the race as a competition of ideologies.
“I’m not running against him. I’m really not. I’m running against socialism and communism,” Tuberville said.
Some of Alabama’s congressional primaries remain in flux as the state goes forward with a plan to switch to a new congressional map that could give Republicans an opportunity to recapture the 2nd Congressional District in November. Alabama is one of several Southern states that have moved quickly to redraw their U.S. House maps and eliminate districts held by Black Democrats after a U.S. Supreme Court decision that severely weakened the Voting Rights Act.
Voters on Tuesday cast ballots in all seven of the state’s congressional districts, but Republicans plan to replace the results in four districts with an Aug. 11 special primary using the maps redrawn to benefit Republicans. The new district lines remain the subject of litigation.
Federal judges have scheduled a Friday hearing on a request by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund to block the state from changing maps.
