Politics- Republican Katie Britt has won against Democrat Will Boyd in the Alabama US Senate race.
- Britt is endorsed by Donald Trump and retiring Sen. Richard Shelby.
Polls are closed in Alabama and Republican Katie Britt has beat Democrat Will Boyd in the state's US Senate race. Sen. Richard Shelby, who has represented Alabama in the US Senate since 1987, announced he would not be seeking reelection, leaving the seat vacant.
Alabama's Senate race candidates
Britt, who is endorsed by former President Donald Trump, worked on Shelby's 2015 reelection campaign as his deputy campaign manager and communications director. She then served as his chief of staff in 2016.
Britt scored a 15.6 percentage point margin of victory in the Republican primary runoff over Rep. Mo Brooks, who lost Trump's endorsement after a lackluster performance in the polls. Britt has also been endorsed by Shelby as well as Alabama's other US senator, Tommy Tuberville.
Boyd, her opponent, unsuccessfully ran for office in 2016 for Alabama's 5th Congressional District. He then served as the chairman of the Lauderdale County Democratic Executive Committee, then sought election to the US Senate in 2017, losing the Democratic primary to former US Sen. Doug Jones.
And while the Republican nominee is clear on where she stands on abortion — "safeguarding the sanctity of life" appears near the top of Britt's platform page — Boyd, a pastor, has gone against the grain and hasn't run on protecting abortion access.
Alabama's voting history
The state voted for then-President Donald Trump over Joe Biden by a margin of about 26 percentage points in the 2020 election. Alabama has voted for the Republican nominee in every presidential election cycle since 1980, and Republicans have won the state by over 20 percentage points since 2004.
The money race
According to OpenSecrets, Britt has raised $10.6 million, spent $9.1 million, and has $1.5 million cash on hand, as of October 19.
Her opponent, Boyd, has raised $117,204, spent $96,452, and has $20,752 cash on hand, as of October 19.
As of late October, over a dozen super PACs, national party committees, politically active nonprofits, and other non-candidate groups had combined to spend about $31.9 million to advocate for or against candidates in this race, with much of that spending coming during the race's highly competitive Republican primary.
What experts say
The race between Britt and Boyd is rated as "solid Republican" by Inside Elections, "solid Republican" by The Cook Political Report, and "safe Republican" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.