On Friday, Donald Trump announced that he was nominating GOP Sen. Jeff Sessions to serve as U.S. attorney general. There are many reasons that Sessions is a horrific choice to lead the Justice Department, but if he is confirmed by the GOP Senate, it will be up to GOP Gov. Robert Bentley to fill his seat. Sessions’ seat is next up in 2020, and there would be a special election to fill the final years of his term. Bentley has the option of holding the special in November of 2018, though he can decide to do it next year if he wants. Alabama is one of the reddest states in the nation, and Team Blue would have a very tough time flipping this seat.
Bentley, who is term-limited in 2018, has had a pretty horrible year up until now. Back in March, audio recordings emerged of Bentley engaged in explicit conversations with a staffer, all but confirming the existence of an affair that shockingly prompted Bentley's wife of 50 years to file for divorce in 2015. Impeachment proceedings slowly began in the GOP-dominated legislature, but they came to a halt earlier this month at the request of Republican state Attorney General Luther Strange, who is conducting his own investigation into the matter. But, to paraphrase another embattled governor of yesteryear, Bentley now has got this thing, and it’s fucking golden.
It’s far too early to say whom Bentley would pick, or whether he plans to appoint someone who would run for the rest of Sessions’ term. Rep. Robert Aderholt, who has represented a rural seat since 1997, has publicly expressed interest in an appointment, while Rep. Bradley Byrne (who lost to Bentley in the 2010 gubernatorial primary) says he would prefer to stay in the House. If Bentley is feeling particularly Machiavellian, he could offer the Senate seat to Strange, the guy who is currently investigating him. If Strange left for D.C., the new Alabama attorney general would be appointed by none other than Bentley. Of course, the optics would look awful for Strange, and he may prefer to run for governor in 2018 anyway.