Will the real Katie Britt please stand up
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Give me Liberty
Rodger Williamson
In the recent 2022 Alabama U.S. Senate Republican Primary, Katie Britt took 49% of the vote over the 29% showing by Alabama’s U.S. Congressman Mo Brooks, leaving former U.S. Army helicopter pilot Mike Durant with only a 23% showing and now eliminated as a contender.
With no one candidate obtaining the required 50% of votes, a run-off election between Britt and Brooks is now set for June 21.
Morris Jackson “Mo” Brooks Jr. graduated from Duke University in 1975 with a double-major in BOTH political science AND economics. Brooks then graduated from the University of Alabama School of Law in 1978.
Brooks started his legal career with the Tuscaloosa County district attorney’s office. He left that office in 1980 to return to Huntsville as a law clerk for its circuit court judge.
Brooks was first elected to public office in 1982 as a member of the Alabama House of Representatives and was re-elected in 1983, 1986 and 1990. Except when Brooks was serving as a prosecutor or judicial clerk, he continued as a practicing attorney.
In 1993, Brooks became counsel to the business law firm Leo and Associates, before rising to become a partner in the firm, reorganized as Leo & Brooks LLC. In 1996, Brooks won a seat on the Madison County Commission and was re-elected in 2000, 2004 and 2008.
Since 2011, Mo Brooks has been serving as the U.S. representative for Alabama’s 5th Congressional District. Most importantly, Brooks is a founding member of the “Freedom Caucus,” a group of several Libertarian-leaning Republicans within the U.S. House of Representatives that support individual rights, limited government and free enterprise.
Katie Boyd Britt graduated from the University of Alabama School of Law in 2013 before working for the Butler Snow Law Firm in Montgomery from 2014 to 2021. Britt also served as president and CEO of the Business Council of Alabama from 2018 to 2021.
Britt’s leading claim to qualification for the job that she seeks was having served as U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby’s chief of staff from 2016 to 2018. Richard Shelby, we must remember, was a lifelong Democrat when he was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986, later switching to the Republican Party in 1994 in order to keep his job.
Shelby was literally a Democrat in Republican clothing, and simply a “RINO” (Republican In Name Only), quite the flip-flop! There are many who allege that Britt is a RINO, as well, and that she will simply be more of the same. In fact, there has been recent hot discussion about where former Alabama radio talk show host Matt Murphy tweeted that “Katie Britt is Luther Strange in a skirt.”
For those that do not recall, Luther Strange was appointed to fill Alabama’s U.S. Senate seat that was vacated by Jeff Sessions when he stepped down to be Donald Trump’s attorney general. Strange served alongside Sen. Shelby from February 9, 2017, to January 3, 2018.
Murphy followed up his tweet to explain that “Luther was not true to himself, dismissive of the voters, acted like something he was not, was not prepared on the issues, and was Washington’ized from day one.”
Case in point. Earlier in the election, Alabama Republican Party Chair John Wahl had worked diligently to set up a U.S. Senate Republican candidate debate for broadcast to TV stations covering all of Alabama’s major metropolitan areas.
Both Britt and Brooks had agreed to dates, while Michael Durant refused. In response, Britt then wrote on Twitter, “I’ve agreed to multiple proposed debates between myself, Mike Durant and Mo Brooks. Congressman Brooks, to his credit, has also agreed. Why won’t Mr. Durant?” Fast forward to a few days ago, and now it is Britt who refuses to debate Congressman Brooks, leaving we the voters to speculate as to the “why.”
The reason stated by the Britt campaign that allegedly Brooks will turn the debate into “a circus” is a clear sign that Britt is afraid to debate Brooks in person. Brooks was a bit more clear when he responded with “Katie Britt refused debates because she will be exposed and embarrassed by her lack of skill and public policy knowledge. Her strategy is to run polls, hire expensive marketing people and to air slick ads that parrot back to the public what the polls say the public wants to hear.”
A “circus,” probably not, as any debate content and conduct would be moderated, but “a circus,” as in Britt is afraid of being on her own, unscripted and on live camera, against Brooks, whom has regularly hosted numerous town-hall events where he has had to respond directly to his voters, then yes, it would be akin to an amateur boxer stepping into the ring to challenge a seasoned professional fighter.
Unfortunately, Katie Britt has flipped her stance regarding the debate that we the Alabama voters deserve, and we will never know whether she is in fact the strong woman that she claims to be.
My read is that she doesn’t believe that she could beat Brooks in a debate and is afraid of what that would do to her chances at winning in June. I will leave you to draw your own conclusions.