Rep. Byrne: ‘Not surprised’ by Tuberville win — Sessions ‘never had any chance of winning,’ Waged ‘pretty awful’ campaign in late stages

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July 17, 2020

While the results of Tuesday’s U.S. Senate Republican primary runoff may not have been a surprise, the margin of victory could have been.

Former Auburn head football coach Tommy Tuberville defeated former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions by 20 points and took wins in 64 of 67 counties from the candidate who had previously served as Alabama’s U.S. Senator for two decades.

U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-Fairhope), who had been a candidate in the GOP primary stage of the race, said he was not surprised by the outcome. During an interview with Huntsville radio WVNN’s “The Jeff Poor Show,” Byrne argued polling had not been in Sessions’ favor and that he anticipated the outcome.

“I wasn’t surprised by the results at all based upon all the polling I saw the moment Jeff Sessions got in the race,” he said. “He never had any chance of winning. And to lose 64 counties, and to get beat by 22 points just shows all those polls were right. Jeff just never had any chance of winning that race. What we saw just the other night was just an affirmation of how unpopular he has become. The campaign he waged the last few months was pretty awful. I wasn’t surprised by that result.”

Byrne said he thought Tuberville was in an excellent spot to defeat incumbent U.S. Sen. Doug Jones (D-Mountain Brook) in the general election this fall, adding he expected the Republican Party to rally around the former football coach.

“I think so — I really do,” he replied. “Doug has a whole lot of money. I get that. But I just don’t see somebody voting for Donald Trump and then going over and voting for a Democrat, whoever it is but particularly Doug with his voting record. I don’t see people doing that. I think Tuberville is in a great position for the fall. And I think the Republican Party will unite for him and everybody else up and down the ticket.”

@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Alabama, the editor of Breitbart TV, a columnist for Mobile’s Lagniappe Weekly and host of Huntsville’s “The Jeff Poor Show” from 2-5 p.m. on WVNN.