Sessions Considers Bid for Former Senate Seat

(The Washington Post) —
Former U.S. Attorney General/Senator Jeff Sessions in November, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Former attorney general Jeff Sessions is weighing a bid for his old Senate seat, meeting with consultants, retired senators and allies in recent weeks to plot out a potential 2020 campaign, three people familiar with the meetings said.

Sessions, whose turbulent two-year stint in the administration ended with a tweet last November, would enter with strong name recognition and deep institutional ties in Alabama and elsewhere. He held the seat for decades before he became President Donald Trump’s first attorney general.

But it would likely infuriate Trump, who attacked Sessions dozens of times for recusing himself from the Russia probe led by former special counsel Robert Mueller and occasionally still complains about the senator. Sessions was fired in November 2018 by tweet.

The three people familiar with the meetings spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to talk frankly about Sessions’s deliberations.

Sessions, 72, has joked in recent weeks that he was glad he was not shot by the president and has continued to give public and private remarks supporting him.

He has not taken any public positions since being fired from the administration.

The move was first reported by Politico. A close Sessions ally said the former attorney general had not yet made a final decision.

Alabama’s senior senator, Richard Shelby, told reporters in June that Sessions had not ruled out a bid for his old seat.

“I’ve talked to him about it,” Shelby, a Republican, said at the time. “I think if he ran, he would be a formidable candidate. Formidable. I’ve not encouraged him to run, but he’s a friend, and if he ran, I think he’d probably clear the field.”

Sessions resigned from the seat in 2017 after Trump chose him to become attorney general.

If were to run, Sessions would join a crowded field of Republicans seeking to face Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., in next year’s general election. Trump bested Hillary Clinton in Alabama by 28 percentage points in 2016, and Jones is one of two Senate Democrats seeking reelection in states won by Trump.

Among the Republicans who have already announced is Roy Moore, the party’s failed 2017 candidate. Moore fell short in the special election against Jones two years ago.

Other Republicans who have already joined the race are former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville, Rep. Bradley Byrne, Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill and state Rep. Arnold Mooney.

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