After Trump pulls approval, support for Mo Brooks grows: poll

Republican US Representative Mo Brooks of Alabama’s bid to replace outgoing GOP Sen. Richard Shelby has received a boost after former President Donald Trump withdrew his endorsement, according to a new poll.

A poll released Thursday by Alabama Daily News and Gray Television shows Brooks is statistically level for the GOP nomination with current leader Katie Britt, Shelby’s former chief of staff, even though the congressman lost the former president’s support nearly two months earlier . Brooks received Trump’s confirmation in April 2021 and was the early frontrunner.

However, Trump withdrew his endorsement on March 23 this year after polls showed support for Brooks was waning, saying in a statement at the time that his former ally had made the “horrible mistake” of “waking up” by saying the Republicans urged to make false claims of massive voter fraud “behind” them in the 2020 election.

In the new poll, conducted by Cygnal, Britt was supported by 30.8 percent of Republican voters in Alabama, while Brooks had 28.5 percent support — well within the poll’s 3.88 percent margin of error. Business leader Michael Durant in polls in March was third with 24.3 percent.

Notably, other recent polls have continued to show Britt by a significant margin. An average of RealClearPolitics polls, which did not include the new poll, showed Britt had an 8.5 percent lead over Brooks on Thursday.

In the Cygnal poll, Brooks’ performance rose steadily after Trump withdrew his endorsement. The Alabama Republican hit a low of 16.1 percent before support was withdrawn in March, while a poll released on May 6 showed support rising to 22.5 percent.

Brooks’ best Cygnal poll numbers came in August 2021, when he enjoyed the support of 40.8 percent of GOP voters. That same month, Brooks was booed when he told attendees at a Trump rally in Cullman, Alabama, to “look forward to” future elections and “put that behind” if they “fix 2020 voter fraud and election theft” in To consider.

Cynical pollster John Rogers told the Alabama Daily News that a key factor driving the recent spike in Brooks polls was self-proclaimed Trump supporters who backed the congressman despite Trump’s disapproval, in addition to voters who supported his rivals in seen in a more negative light.

“Both Durant and Britt’s negatives are going up, which means their net images are now close to Brooks’ near-waterline mark,” Rogers said, according to the Alabama Daily News. “Brooks is now getting a cleaner plurality of Trump Republicans — he’s gone from 26% of self-proclaimed Trump Republicans to 35% — and that’s fueling his surge since March.”

The new poll was conducted May 15-16 among 634 likely Republican primary voters in Alabama.

Trump hinted he would endorse another candidate after withdrawing his endorsement from Brooks. He has yet to issue a new confirmation, although CNN reported Thursday that Trump is “closely monitoring” the race.

In a statement to news weekBrooks campaign co-chair Stan McDonald said the poll numbers changed because Britt was “exposed as a lobbyist” for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. According to a report published by AL.com earlier this week, a McConnell-affiliated super-political action committee (PAC) recently donated $2 million to a super-PAC working to defeat Brooks and elect Britt.

“Mo Brooks is on the rise because Katie Britt was exposed as a lobbyist backed by Mitch McConnell, who has kinked as a pro-life, advocated for tax increases and is an open borders Chamber of Commerce jerk,” McDonald said . “Meanwhile, Britt’s team, using McConnell’s money, launched millions of malicious attacks on Mike Durant.”

“But Mo Brooks has consistently argued with Alabama that he’s the most conservative guy in the race, and voters seem to have responded to that,” he continued.

news week has reached out to Trump’s office for comment.