Republican Katie Britt will win Alabama’s Senate race, CNN projects, and defeat Democrat Will Boyd, the pastor of the St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church.
It’s the first time the state has elected a woman to the office.
Britt is the former chief of staff for retired Sen. Richard Shelby. The drama in this race came in the Republican primary when Britt took on Rep. Mo Brooks. Trump initially endorsed Brooks, but he rescinded the endorsement as Brooks’ campaign struggled.
Democrats last won a Senate seat in Alabama in 2017 when Doug Jones won a special election against Republican Roy Moore.
Britt’s chances in crimson red Alabama were never in doubt — the competitive race was for the Republican nomination to succeed the retiring Republican Sen. Richard Shelby.
Britt jumped into the primary race even though Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks had already earned former President Donald Trump’s endorsement.
But Brooks – who led the charge in Congress to overturn the 2020 election results – was viewed as an unreliable ally to the business community, especially compared to Shelby, who delivered federal funding for the state for decades. And Britt, Shelby’s former chief of staff and the Business Council of Alabama’s former CEO, had deep ties to that wing of the party.
Meanwhile, a self-funded Republican candidate, Lynda Blanchard, the former Trump ambassador to Slovenia, never took off and dropped out of the race. Army veteran pilot Mike Durant — of “Black Hawk Down” fame — was weighed down by his sister’s public claims that he was in denial about her allegations of sexual abuse involving their father, which Durant strongly denied.
And Britt was able to flip Trump. At a Super Bowl party, New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick praised Britt—and her husband Wesley, a former Patriot—to Trump. That sparked an invitation to Trump’s Palm Beach estate.
Britt had already cast herself as a Trump-aligned conservative, arguing that Brooks was a career politician, who had heavily criticized Trump during the 2016 GOP presidential primary. In March, after Brooks publicly accused Trump of asking him to break the law by exploring ways to reinstall him as commander in chief, Trump dropped the congressman.
In the May primary, Britt received 45% of the vote, but since no candidate received over 50%, the race turned to a June runoff election. Trump then endorsed Britt, who beat Brooks with 63% of the vote.
