Jeff Sessions' Senate Run: A Blessing or a Curse?

Just hours before the filing deadline to secure a place on the primary ballot for both presidential and local races in Alabama, two well-known figures decided to throw their hats into the ring.  Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg filed to run in the state’s Democratic presidential primary while the state’s longtime former Senator Jeff Sessions decided to run for his old seat after all.

High-profile political figures waiting until the last minute to announce runs for office appears to have become commonplace in American politics. Following the failure of his presidential campaign, Florida Senator Marco Rubio swore up and down that he would not run for re-election and that he would become a “private citizen” in January.  However, the Pulse Nightclub Shooting in his home state appeared to convince Rubio to change his mind and he decided to run for re-election.  As soon as Rubio entered the race, most of the other declared candidates jumped ship; including future conservative governor Ron DeSantis and future Never-Trumper Congressman David Jolly.

That same year, another high-profile politician waited until after the primaries had already taken place to enter the race.  Just four days before the deadline for removal from the ballot, former Indiana Senator Evan Bayh announced his decision to run for his former Senate seat as the Democratic nominee chosen by the party’s primary voters left the race. 

Unlike what happened to Rubio and Bayh, the field has not cleared to make room for Sessions.  Sessions has a complicated relationship with President Trump, to say the least.  Not long after winning re-election with no Democratic opposition, Sessions became the first sitting Senator to endorse then-candidate Trump, whom most elected Republicans treated with scorn.  While Sessions did not officially endorse Trump until February 2016, he appeared at a rally with him in Mobile in August 2015.

Sessions’s loyalty earned him a spot on the Trump campaign, where he worked until the upset that no one saw coming. Because the President values loyalty, he decided to nominate Sessions for the position of Attorney General.  After all, one would think that removing Sessions from the Senate would not result in a Democrat winning the special election to replace him. 

In terms of immigration policy and the “America First” agenda, President Trump and Sessions see eye-to-eye; which probably explains why the longtime Alabama Senator eagerly endorsed him.  Despite the Democrats’ best attempts to smear him as a racist during his confirmation hearings, Sessions’ colleagues in the Senate voted to confirm him as Attorney General on a largely party-line vote. 

However, the relationship between President Trump and Attorney General Sessions. Because of contacts he had with the Russian Ambassador during the 2016 campaign, Sessions ended up recusing himself from any investigations into the Trump campaign.  His decision to recuse himself led to the appointment of the Special Counsel that put a cloud over the Trump presidency for two years.  This did not impress the President.

In addition, a great deal of turmoil unfolded in Sessions’s home state of Alabama, one of the reddest states in the country.  Governor Robert Bentley had initially scheduled the special election to replace Sessions to coincide with the 2018 general election where statewide races would take place. Bentley had appointed the state’s Attorney General Luther Strange to fill Sessions’s seat in the meantime. In April 2017, Bentley ended up resigning because of a sex scandal.  His successor, Lieutenant Governor Kay Ivey, moved up the special election to 2017.  A primary election took place on August 15, a primary runoff took place on September 26, and the general election took place on December 12.

In addition to Strange, two “insurgent” candidates declared their candidacies: Roy Moore, former Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, and Tea Party Congressman Mo Brooks.  Brooks, described by Ann Coulter as the “MAGA candidate,” had the endorsements of several influential figures within the conservative movement; including Coulter, Laura Ingraham, and Sean Hannity. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and President Trump supported Strange. 

Unfortunately for Coulter, Ingraham, and Hannity, Brooks did not make it into the runoff.  As none of the candidates received the necessary 50 percent of the vote to avoid a runoff, the top two finishers, Moore and Strange, would have to face off head-to-head. Many of the people who supported Brooks ended up supporting Moore, who ended up winning the runoff despite President Trump’s advocacy on behalf of Strange. Despite the fact that the establishment absolutely detested Moore for his refusal to comply with an order from a federal judge to remove a Ten Commandments momument from the Alabama Supreme Court movement and his decision more than a decade later not to honor a judge’s order to issue same-sex marriage licenses, Moore retained folk hero status in Alabama for his steadfast defense of the traditional values the residents of the Yellowhammer State hold dear.  Therefore, even those skeptical of Moore thought he would still win against the Democratic nominee, Doug Jones, who served as a US Attorney during the Clinton administration.

At this time two years ago, the race began to completely unravel when decades-old sexual assault allegations, which included inappropriate touching of a minor, emerged against Moore in the wake of the #MeToo wave sweeping the nation.  Republicans panicked, floating the idea of moving the special election as well as raising the possibility that Strange could resign his Senate seat, which would trigger a new special election.  Ultimately, none of these scenarios bore out. In one of President Trump’s strongest states, a liberal Democrat ended up winning Jeff Sessions’s old Senate seat.

As I explained in a blog post written the day after Jones’s upset victory, none of this would have happened if Sessions did not take the job of Attorney General.  While Sessions did serve as an ally to President Trump, unlike many of his other cabinet officials, and effectively advocated for the MAGA agenda with regards to immigration, his decision to recuse himself from the Russia probe left a bad taste in the mouths of President Trump and many Republicans.  Sessions announced his resignation shortly after the 2018 midterms and it appeared that the bromance between the President and the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of the United States had officially come to an end.

With a rapidly approaching primary date of March 3, several Republicans had thrown their hats into the ring; eager to reclaim Sessions’s old seat for the Republicans.  Congressman Bradley Byrne, former football coach Tommy Tuberville, Secretary of State John Merrill, and, to the horror of everyone in America who wants nothing more than to see the seat flip back to the GOP: Roy Moore.  It looked likely that President Trump would remain neutral in the primary and end up endorsing whoever won the Republican nomination. The entire calculus of the race to beat Doug Jones changed when Sessions decided to run mere hours before the November 8 filing deadline.

The decision of the other Republican candidates not to clear the field to make room for Sessions indicates that he may have lost the folk hero status he once enjoyed among Alabamans because of his actions related to the Russia probe. Still, a recent poll shows that a plurality of Alabama residents appear open to a Sessions Senate bid.  The poll showed 36 percent of Republican primary voters supporting Sessions and 23 percent of them supporting Tuberville; with Byrne and Moore each receiving 11 percent of the vote.  With regard to his relationship with the President, Sessions appears to have turned the other cheek and has released an ad portraying himself as a steadfast supporter of the MAGA agenda.

Sessions’ decision to campaign for his old seat has not received a warm reception in some circles.  Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, one of the President’s strongest defenders, tweeted out that “Jeff Sessions returning to the Senate is a terrible idea.” While the source of Gaetz’s frustration with Sessions may very well relate to his handling of the Russia probe, Gaetz’s distrust of Sessions may stem from a disagreement they have in another policy area: marijuana.  As Attorney General, Sessions fought hard to force existing federal law regarding reefer, which rubbed people who subscribe to a more libertarian philosophy on the issue of drugs, like Gaetz, the wrong way. 

As for President Trump, he should keep the following in mind.  He had many nasty fights with his competitors for the Republican presidential nomination; branding them with nicknames such as “Lyin’ Ted” and “Little Marco.”  After the fight ended and Trump became President, he buried the hatchet and became allies with many of the people he once fought against; including Lindsey Graham, who refused to endorse him and voted for Evan McMuffin. In the months leading up to the 2016 Presidential Election, 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney also made his disdain for Trump perfectly clear.  As soon as Trump won the election, Romney appeared eager to help the new President succeed; even interviewing for the position of Secretary of State.  Romney ultimately did not become Secretary of State but he decided to remain active in American politics by launching a campaign to replace retiring Utah Senator Orrin Hatch.  Despite their past differences, President Trump decided to endorse Romney.

Even before he took office, Romney signaled that he would take on the role of sucking up to the mainstream media by attacking President Trump; a role previously held by Jeff Flake. The incoming Senator wrote an op-ed criticizing the President the day before he took office and has continued to go after Trump despite the fact that they agree more often than they disagree when it comes to the issues. 

In conclusion, I understand why President Trump might have a bone to pick with Jeff Sessions. The Russia probe that Sessions’s recusal enabled cast a cloud over his presidency and could have played a role in the Democrats taking back the House; an event that made it infinitely more likely America would end up going down the impeachment rabbit hole.  However, if he can endorse someone like Mitt Romney and bury the hatchet with his former Republican competitors, then surely he can make up with Sessions and endorse him. At the very least, the President should resist the urge to trash Sessions and let Alabama’s Republican primary voters decide who they want representing their state in the Senate.  President Trump has plenty of other issues to worry about: specifically, his own re-election.  Heading into the general election, President Trump has plenty of states to worry about carrying; Alabama definitely does not meet the definition of a swing state. As Sessions correctly pointed out, he did not write a scathing tell-all about his time in the White House upon his departure; unlike many other backstabbing former administration officials who have gone full Scott McClellan and trashed their former boss to the delight of the mainstream media.

Hopefully, Alabama will have two Republican Senators representing it in the 117^th Congress.  Ultimately, the state’s Republican voters will decide the fate of Jeff Sessions.  While Republicans definitely have reason to see a Sessions candidacy as a curse, the former Attorney General’s return to the Senate may come as more of a blessing in disguise than many people, including President Trump, may realize.