Britt, heavily favored to win the seat in November in a race that Inside Elections rates as Solid Republican, served as head of the Business Council of Alabama, an association for businesses in the state, before launching her campaign. She also understands how to wield influence in the Senate, where she worked for Shelby, and has a large network in Washington, D.C., and Alabama to draw from.
Trump did not endorse a candidate to replace Brooks in the 5th District. Dale Strong, a volunteer firefighter who chairs the Madison County Commission, won the primary runoff Tuesday with 63 percent of the vote and is favored to win in November.
Virginia battlefields set
In Virginia, Republican voters picked challengers for Democratic incumbents in what will be closely watched races this November, although Trump did not weigh in on the primaries.
In the 2nd District, state Sen. Jen Kiggans’ defeat of a candidate running on an America First platform and two other opponents was a victory for the party’s establishment wing. A nurse practitioner and Navy veteran, Kiggans will face Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria. Kiggans appealed to conservatives during the primary, focusing in one ad on election security and arguing that schools shouldn’t cover transgender issues and critical race theory, and she has been named to the National Republican Congressional Committee’s Young Guns program for promising challengers. Redistricting tilted the district more in Republicans’ favor, and Inside Elections rates the race as a Toss-up.
Both Luria and Kiggans served in the Navy, and the district is home to a naval base and a large population of veterans and active-duty servicemembers. Luria has sought to focus on defense issues and the defense budget since her 2018 election, and she also is the only vulnerable Democrat to sit on the House committee investigating Jan. 6.
