Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions is reportedly mulling over a return to politics and may be seeking to regain his old Senate seat in Alabama.
The former Republican lawmaker may be seriously considering regaining the seat won by Democratic Sen. Doug Jones in a special election in 2017, Republican sources with knowledge of the situation said, according to Associated Press.
Sessions has reportedly made some phone calls about the possible bid for his old seat, according to the anonymous sources. If he does, in fact, decide to run, he has until 5 p.m. Nov. 8 to make it official and come in by the deadline set by the Alabama Republican Party.
After two decades serving in the Senate, Sessions left his Congressional seat to become President Trump’s first attorney general where he failed to live up to expectations and famously recused himself from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, further driving a wedge between him and the White House before being ousted in November 2018.
The president lamented his nomination of Sessions and said back in June that he wished he had a “do-over” with the former AG.
“I would say if I had one do-over, it would be, I would not have appointed Jeff Sessions to be attorney general,” Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press,” calling Sessions as his pick his “biggest mistake.”
Though popular in Alabama, Sessions could be facing a tough run if he decides to enter the 2020 race, vying for his former seat in a crowded Republican field which includes U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne, former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville, Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill and Roy Moore, former state Supreme Court judge.
Moore lost the 2017 special election to Jones amid allegations of sexual misconduct. And Jones is now seen as a vulnerable candidate as the GOP hopefuls begin their push toward 2020. Yet while some see Sessions entering the race as challenging, there is a belief that he could find a lot of support in his home state, which Trump won with 62 percent of the vote in 2016.
“I suspect Sessions would become an immediate front-runner if he were to enter the race,” David Hughes, a political scientist at Auburn University in Montgomery, told Associated Press. “Obviously, if he became a candidate, that would change the dynamic of the race dramatically.”
“We are hearing that Sessions is seriously considering running for Senate again and that polling indicates he would be in very good shape. The Club for Growth has in the past and would once again encourage him to run for that Senate seat,” David McIntosh, president of the conservative Club for Growth, told Politico.
“We were enthusiastic way back early on that Sessions, when he retired from the attorney general spot, might go back to the Senate,” McIntosh said. “At that point, he didn’t want to think about that because he was just finishing up one job. I’m very encouraged he’s now seriously considering it.”
Though the question remains about how Trump would treat Sessions if he decided to run, the 72-year-old former AG has remained supportive of the president and his agenda.
“He is relentlessly and actually honoring the promises he made to the American people,” Sessions said in a speech at a party fundraiser earlier this month.
While Sessions has made no formal announcement, news of him even considering a run for his former Senate seat set off a wave of reaction on social media where many have not forgotten that Sessions’ recusal from the Russia investigation made way for Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to appoint Mueller and launch a two-year, multi-million dollar witch hunt against Trump and his associates.
Can’t wait for “Recused himself from the Russia investigation” to be used *against* him in the primary ??
— Neo, Liberal Corporate Sellout (@HotTakesBun) October 29, 2019
Dancing With the Stars wouldn’t let Jeff Sessions on?
— BarrDeceivesForTrump (@darinp2) October 29, 2019
— Copernicus Turing (@CopernicusTur) October 29, 2019
He was a good senator. But a horrible AG.
— i.mo (@imo92434897) October 29, 2019
Why would he want to go back to the swamp? He was fired by @POTUS, does he want to join the RINO herd in the Senate? That’s the last thing the president needs in the Senate, someone with a score to settle! #SayNoToJeffSessions
— Dennis McKinney (@Spunkysdad57) October 29, 2019
Sessions blew it.
— cathy chiero (@catdanlis) October 29, 2019
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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