Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala. said Wednesday that if elected to serve in the U.S. Senate, he will not vote to keep Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. as majority leader.
“Inside the Republican conference, Mitch McConnell has got to go,” Brooks told reporters at a Heritage Foundation breakfast. “He’s the head of the swamp of the U.S. Senate.”
The conservative Rep. Brooks is challenging appointed Republican Senator Luther Strange in a special election for the Senate seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Strange was appointed by disgraced former Gov. Robert Bentley, and many Alabamans see the appointment as a corrupt deal struck between a governor that was mired in scandal, and the state attorney general, Strange, prosecuting him at the time. Former Alabama Supreme Court Judge Roy Moore is also running, and holds a commanding lead in the polls.
Yet, Strange has establishment backing. The Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC allied with Majority Leader McConnell, has launched attacks against Brooks on behalf of Sen. Strange. McConnell’s allies want to paint the conservative Brooks as insufficiently pro-Trump, but in reality it is Republican leadership in Congress that has failed to deliver on President Trump’s promises, like full repeal of Obamacare.