Two Weeks To Go. Questions!

     The GOP Alabama U.S. Senate runoff election is two weeks from tomorrow.
     And there are lots of questions about the race between Jeff Sessions and Tommy Tubberville, who Trump is supporting, continuing his intense pique against his former Attorney General.

• Will Trump come to Mobile to campaign for Tubberville? That visit was floated before Trump's failed Tulsa rally, and Tubberville is probably ready to go to D.C. and carry the president on his shoulders to Mobile if need be. [UPDATE: The Trump campaign has nixed the rally citing Covid19]
• Alabamians like Sessions. But they also voted for Trump at a one of the highest rates of any state (62.1%) in 2016. And they do love football! It's like a fight between two brothers. Voters love 'em both, but only one will win the Republican nomination.
• Sessions has experience on his side. Tubberville is running for his first ever elected seat.
• Trump has supported two losing Alabama U.S. Senate candidates before---Luther Strange, and then Roy Moore. Will his endorsement of Tubberville give Trump a hat-trick (a metaphor that certainly crosses sports lines!).
• Will Alabama voters actually go to the polls on a likely hot summer Tuesday when there is only one big race on the ballot*?  (Remember crossover voting** is banned by both parties. So the only voters who can decide the runoff are those 860,652 who voted in the March 3rd Republican Primary. Democrats need not apply.)
• Covid19 has a lot of Alabama on lockdown. Will Republican voters ignore the virus threat and vote? Will they wear masks, which Trump has derided as a visual sign people oppose his own re-elction battle.(Note: The Trump campaign cancelled events set for this week in Arizona and Florida after Covic19 spikes.)
• The runoff winner will try to unseat Democratic U.S. Senator Doug Jones on November 3rd....meaning a four month campaign that is sure to dominate the airwaves across the state in paid ads and news coverage.

*depending on where you live, there are some other runoffs in both parties. Check your county ballot HERE. Please ignore the Secretary of State's insistence in using the noun "Democrat" where an adjective "Democratic" is proper (as in the name of the ballot. It is a Democratic Ballot and a Republican Ballot)...and it is after all, the name the party gives to itself. Secretary of State Merrill knows about this, but instead of being an impartial state official, he sides with the other GOPers who refused to call the other party "Democratic". Pretty petty.

**from the Secretary of State's office:

"Historically, state law has permitted the political parties to determine who may participate in their respective primary elections. The Democratic Party has, since 1983, prohibited crossover voting in its primary runoff election. A voter could not legally vote in the Republican primary election and then vote in the Democratic primary run off. The Republican Party adopted a similar rule in 2016 prohibiting a person from crossing over from the Democratic Party primary election to the Republican Party primary run off election."