Britt holds double-digit lead over Brooks in Alabama: poll

Katie Britt has a double-digit lead over Rep. Mo Brooks in Alabama’s Republican Senate runoff, according to an Emerson College-The Hill poll released Thursday. 

Britt enjoys the support of just under 50 percent of very likely runoff voters in the poll, while Brooks has roughly 34 percent support. Another 17 percent of very likely voters are undecided. 

Of the undecided voters, 57 percent lean toward Britt, a former top aide to retiring Sen. Richard Shelby (R), whose seat she is trying to fill. Forty-three percent lean toward Brooks, a hard-line, six-term House lawmaker. 

Neither got more than 50 percent of the vote in last month’s primary, leading to the June 21 runoff.

Britt led that race with just under 45 percent of the vote, followed by Brooks with a little more than 29 percent of the vote. Former Army helicopter pilot Mike Durant took around 23 percent of the vote. 

The race has morphed into an ugly battle between Britt and Brooks and a proxy battle over former President Trump’s sway. 

Britt has cast herself as a strong conservative who will bring home the bacon in Washington — a tacit knock at Brooks’s hard-line reputation — while beating back attacks over her support from Shelby and a group aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). 

Brooks, meanwhile, has cast Britt as an establishment figure as a result of that support, arguing that he’s the only true Republican in the contest.

Trump has also grabbed the spotlight in the race. 

He endorsed Brooks last year, then rescinded that support earlier this year over claims Brooks once made at a rally saying GOP voters should move on from the 2020 election — a remark that Trump took as a slight against his unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud. 

Trump endorsed Britt last week, a reversal from last July when he dubbed her the “assistant” to “the RINO Senator from Alabama, close friend of Old Crow Mitch McConnell, Richard Shelby,” referring to Shelby with an acronym meaning “Republican in name only.” 

“Katie Strongly Supports our under siege Second Amendment, Stands Up for Parental Rights, and Will Fight for our Military, our Vets, and Election Integrity. Above all, Katie Britt will never let you down,” Trump said last week. 

Trump’s support could play an influential role in the runoff, with 40 percent of likely runoff voters saying his backing would make them more likely to vote for a candidate. Forty-five percent said it would make no difference, and 16 percent said it would make them less likely to support someone. 

The Emerson College-The Hill poll surveyed 1,000 very likely GOP runoff voters from June 12-13 and has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.