AL-Sen: Earlier this week, GOP Gov. Kay Ivey rescheduled the special election for the Senate seat now held by appointed GOP Sen. Luther Strange from 2018 to 2017. The party primaries will be Aug. 15, with a Sept. 26 runoff for contests where no candidate takes a majority of the vote, and the general election will be Dec. 12. The filing deadline is May 17, though the state parties can pick an earlier date. Strange has attracted scorn from fellow Republicans for accepting an appointment from then-Gov. Robert Bentley, even as Strange’s attorney general’s office was investigating Bentley for covering up a sex scandal, and he’s not going to get a free pass through the primary. The only question is, how many Republicans will challenge him this fall.
On Tuesday, state Rep. Ed Henry entered the race hours after the special was rescheduled. Henry led the charge to impeach Bentley before the governor resigned in disgrace last week, and he’s almost certainly going to focus on Strange’s very sketchy appointment. Henry also was a co-chair of Donald Trump’s Alabama campaign, and he declared that “Trump's going to need help draining the swamp.”
Several other Republicans have made noises about getting in. On Wednesday, suspended state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore said he would decide in the next week. Moore made national headlines in 2015 for defying orders from federal courts to recognize same-sex marriage, and just before his press conference, the Alabama Supreme Court upheld the decision that suspended him until his term expires. Unsurprisingly, Moore casted himself as a martyr, and he’s reportedly very popular in this very conservative state.
State Senate leader Del Marsh has already said that he’ll decide this week, and he sounds likely to go for it. However, conservative columnist Quin Hillyer writes in the Washington Examiner that Marsh upset religious conservatives when he supported legalized gambling in 2015, and his moves to prevent the legislature from repealing Common Core education standards also upset movement conservatives.
A trio of members of Alabama’s U.S. House delegation have not ruled out running. Rep. Mo Brooks, a hard core tea partier who got to Congress by primarying party-switching incumbent Parker Griffith, says he has “yet to ponder or decide anything.” Rep. Robert Aderholt, a longtime member who is much more friendly to the leadership, also isn’t closing the door: His chief of staff says that Aderholt “will be considering the options.” Rep. Bradley Byrne also only told Al.com that “I think Gov. Ivey made the right decision and I look forward to seeing the field,” which certainly isn’t a no. In fact, when the Montgomery Advertiser’s Brian Lyman directly asked Byrne if he considering, the congressman just repeated the same line.
Several other people also are talking about jumping in. Ex-state Rep. Perry Hooper says he’ll decide “shortly,” while state Sen. Trip Pittman says he’ll make up his mind “in a couple of weeks.” Meanwhile, state Sen. Arthur Orr acknowledges that he’s been encouraged, but says that “I believe there will be other candidates getting into the race that I could support. If that is the case, I will continue to focus on the job at hand in Montgomery.”
There could also be one other credible Republican scoping things out. Hillyer writes that Jimmy Rane, the wealthiest man in Alabama, has a grudge against Strange for his role in the conviction of his ally, then-state House Speaker Mike Hubbard, and that Rane “plans either to finance a candidate to take Strange down, or even to run himself.” Rane is famous in the state from his commercials for his company.