The 2022 United States Senate election in Alabama was held on November 8, 2022, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Alabama. Incumbent senator Richard Shelby was first elected in 1986 and re-elected in 1992 as a Democrat before becoming a Republican in 1994. In February 2021, Shelby announced that he would not seek re-election to a seventh term, which resulted in the first open Senate seat since 1996 and the first in this seat since 1968.
Primary elections in Alabama were held on May 24, with Will Boyd securing the Democratic nomination. However, as none of the Republican candidates received at least 50% of the vote, a runoff election occurred on June 21 between the top two candidates of the first round: attorney Katie Britt and U.S. representative Mo Brooks. Britt won the runoff against Brooks and subsequently became the Republican nominee.
Britt's victory in the Republican Party primary was seen as tantamount to election in Alabama, which is a heavily Republican state. Britt won the general election and became the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate in the state's history. She is also the first non-incumbent Republican Senator from Alabama to be elected to this seat since 1980.
Early polling showed U.S. Representative Mo Brooks as the frontrunner in the race, and he received the endorsement of former president Donald Trump. However, in November, the race started becoming increasingly closer with former chief of staff to incumbent senator Richard Shelby, Katie Britt, running neck and neck with Brooks. In March 2022, businessman and former pilot Michael Durant took the lead in the race, with Brooks only just beginning to spend money on television advertisements. On March 23, 2022, with Brooks polling in third place, Trump revoked his endorsement and promised to endorse a new candidate. In his official statement, Trump slammed Brooks for wanting to move past the 2020 United States presidential election, and claimed he went "woke" on it. There was speculation that Trump withdrew his endorsement because he did not want to be associated with a losing campaign. Brooks claimed that Trump had told him to reinstate him as president and that Trump had been manipulated by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Brooks attacked Britt as allegedly being weak on illegal immigration and supporting higher taxes, while Brooks' critics frequently point to his long career in politics, having been in office for 40 years. In May, a planned debate between the three candidates was canceled after Durant declined to attend. A runoff election took place on June 21 as none of the candidates managed 50% of the vote needed to win the nomination outright, with Britt becoming the Republican nominee.
Graphical summary<br />
Aggregate polls<br />
Graphical summary<br />
Katie Britt vs. Mike Durant<br />
Mo Brooks vs. Mike Durant<br />
No primary was held for the Libertarian Party, and candidates were instead nominated by the party.
Source
Britt won six of seven congressional districts.
Partisan clients<br />
Official campaign websites