The political comeback of former US attorney general Jeff Sessions on Tuesday screeched to a halt in Alabama where he lost his bid to reclaim his old US Senate seat to a political novice who earned US President Donald Trump’s endorsement.
The humiliating defeat is almost certainly a career-ender for Sessions, who emerged as a critical Trump ally after becoming the first US senator to endorse the brash billionaire in 2015, when he donned a red “Make America Great Again” cap and embraced the unlikely candidate on a campaign stage.
After being appointed to the cabinet as attorney general, he was sacked in late 2018 and won Trump’s everlasting disdain.
Photo: EPA-EFE
With 91 percent of Alabama precincts counted, former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville was leading the Republican runoff with 61 percent of the vote.
The New York Times, CNN and other US media called the race for Tuberville.
Sessions conceded defeat late on Tuesday and called on supporters to back Tuberville come November.
“We must not cede our nation to the mob or globalist forces. We have borders, laws, and history that must be defended,” he wrote on Twitter.
He added that the Republican party must “not be co-opted by special interests on Trade, Immigration, and China.”
The showdown in the deep-red southern state was seen as a test of Trump’s influence over his core supporters amid broad frustration with his bungled response to the COVID-19 pandemic and his handling of protests against racial injustice.
Both candidates claimed to be fervent allies of Trump, but while Sessions adhered to conservative principles, the president never forgave him for recusing himself in 2017 from the probe into Russia’s election meddling.
With Alabama passionately pro-Trump, the president inserted himself squarely into the race, badgering Sessions in recent weeks as a “disaster” of an attorney general who was unwelcome back in Washington, and touting Tuberville as a breath of fresh air.
“Tommy Tuberville WON big against Jeff Sessions,” Trump tweeted late on Tuesday. “Will be a GREAT Senator for the incredible people of Alabama.”
Tuberville, 65, now heads to the November election to face US Senator Doug Jones.
Jones is easily the most imperiled Democrat in the 2020 election cycle, but the party has expressed hope that strong anti-Trump sentiment this year could help them reclaim control of the Senate.
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