Following a contentious primary campaign, Alabama’s Republican Attorney General race is advancing to a runoff between candidates Katherine Robertson and Jay Mitchell.
Robertson, chief counsel to current Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, took home 189,175 votes, or nearly 41 percent of Republican AG votes cast during Tuesday’s primary election.
Former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Jay Mitchell received roughly 160,613 votes, or around 34 percent of the Republican electorate’s support. Blount County District Attorney and AG candidate Pamela Casey received 116,930 votes, or roughly 25 percent of Republican AG voters’ support.
The fight for the GOP AG nomination, which has been marked by attack ads, competitive fundraising and an emphasis on hot-button national issues such as border security and candidates’ beliefs on Islam, will be decided by a runoff election on June 16.
Candidates have spent more than $8 million combined on the race. Robertson has led fundraising efforts, bringing in roughly $4.4 million in campaign contributions.
Mitchell, meanwhile, has raised around $3.8 million in monetary contributions and Casey has gathered roughly $196,000.
Robertson has received endorsements from Marshall, as well as from organizations such as the Republican Attorneys General Association and the Alabama Farmers Federation.
Mitchell has been endorsed by organizations including the Business Council of Alabama, the Alabama Trucking Association and Alabama Citizens for Life.
Casey, meanwhile, saw endorsements from a roster of local district attorneys and Angeal Harris, the mother of Aniah Blanchard, whose murder inspired the passage of Aniah’s Law in Alabama.
During an appearance at an Election Day event hosted by conservative outlet Rightside Media, Robertson said her priorities as AG would include making the most of the two remaining years of the Trump administration to pursue conservative policies that build upon those she has pursued as Marshall’s adviser.
“Alabama is still under the thumb of the federal government in a lot of ways,” she continued. “We’ve got two years left of this Trump DOJ. I want to use every minute of it to make sure that we unravel ourselves from the federal government’s overreach, whether that’s congressional maps, whether that’s prisons, whether it’s, you know, just our school systems that are under desegregation orders.”
Following the election results, Robertson expressed gratitude to her supporters and pledged to continue fighting for the Republican nomination.
“Heading to bed with a full heart and deep gratitude for all the folks that got us this far…work’s not done!” she wrote.
On election day, Mitchell, whose campaign released multiple ads emphasizing the candidate’s support for law enforcement and tough-on-crime policies, highlighted an endorsement from Shelby County Sheriff John Samaniego, calling on voters to support Samaniego’s campaign for reelection and Mitchell’s AG bid.
“If you enjoy living in this safe community, get out and vote John Samaniego for Sheriff and Jay Mitchell for Alabama Attorney General!” the Mitchell campaign wrote.
The Mitchell campaign was contacted for further comment on the upcoming AG runoff.
In her campaign’s concession statement, Casey expressed thanks to her supporters and said she intended to spend time with her family in the coming months.
“Tonight, while the results were not what we hoped for, I walk away incredibly proud of the race we ran together,” Casey wrote on election night.
“Against opponents with millions of dollars to spend, we built a statewide campaign with grit, faith, hard work, and people who believed in our message,” she continued. “With a little over $200,000, we traveled this state, shook hands, listened to voters, and earned one out of every four votes cast today. And let me say this plainly, we ran one heck of a race.”
The candidate celebrated seeing the greatest support for her bid in Blount County, winning by a margin of 59 percent.
“There are no words to fully express what it means to be trusted and supported by the people who know me best, the community that raised me, allowed me to serve as District Attorney, and has stood beside my family through every season of life,” Casey wrote.
The winner of the Republican nomination will face Democratic nominee Jeff McLauglin in the general election on November 3.
