MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday night spurned his former Attorney General Jeff Sessions to endorse former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville in the U.S. Senate race in Alabama.
Trump announced his support for Tuberville in a tweet. “He will be a great Senator for the people of Alabama. Coach Tommy Tuberville, a winner, has my Complete and Total Endorsement. I love Alabama!” Trump wrote. Trump did not mention Sessions in the tweet.
Tuberville and Sessions are competing in the March 31 Republican primary runoff. The winner will face Democratic Sen. Doug Jones, the current incumbent, in November.
Sessions is seeking a return to the Senate seat he held safely for 20 years before stepping down to become Trump’s first attorney general. Sessions resigned as attorney general after their relationship soured over his recusal in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Sessions said he was bound by Department of Justice regulation to resign because he played a role in Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Sessions posted in a tweet that Trump can of course endorse anyone he chooses in the race, but the decision in the Senate race ultimately belongs to voters. Sessions said that even before Trump ran for president, “I fought for the principles that Donald Trump so effectively advocated.”
Both Sessions and Tuberville have emphasized their loyalty to Trump, and his legislative agenda.
