Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville, heavily criticized former U.S. Congressman turned State House candidate Mo Brooks Tuesday morning, saying the politician for more than four decades failed in every office he held.
The Republican six-term Congressman from Huntsville unexpectedly qualified Friday to run in Alabama House District 20, challenging Rep. James Lomax, R-Huntsville, who is completing his first term in the House.
Ledbetter, speaking at a Business Council of Alabama event, discussed the need to lead to make the state better and rise above party politics. He called Lomax a valuable member of the caucus whose intelligence is key to the future of the state.
“You’ve got somebody like a James Lomax that is an outstanding young man, who is super, super smart and is a future leader of this state, without question…
“Then you got somebody like Mo Brooks running against him who has failed in every office he’s been in,” Ledbetter said to applause from those gathered for BCA’s weekly morning briefing.
Brooks hadn’t yet heard about Ledbetter’s comments late Tuesday morning when contacted by Alabama Daily News.
“That’s not what the voters say,” Brooks said when asked about the “failure” statement by the speaker.
“I have never lost a reelection,” Brooks said. “The voters have reelected me to offices in which I was first elected consistently by overwhelming numbers, on average in excess of 70%.
“So the speaker, living far from Huntsville, is apparently revealing he knows not very much about it.”
Brooks said he’s been on the ballot 18 times, going back to the early 1980s when he spent a decade in the Alabama House of Representatives. He was then the district attorney, a county commissioner and congressman.
He gave up his seat in Congress in 2022 to run for the open U.S. Senate. He lost the GOP runoff to now Sen. Katie Britt after receiving and then losing President Donald Trump’s endorsement.
At the BCA event, Ledbetter said the Alabama Legislature’s approval rating among voters was higher than Brooks’ when he left Congress..
“This is not about politics,” Ledbetter said. “This is about running this state in a manner where we can succeed.
“… We pay our bills, we’ve got money, and he owed $30 trillion when he left office.”
That was the total national debt in 2022.
“So I don’t think we should trade the old for the new,” Ledbetter said.
Rep. Joe Lovvorn, R-Auburn, who was sharing the BCA stage with Ledbetter, agreed, calling Lomax a forward-looking member.
Ledbetter also said leaders like Britt, who previously led the BCA, are the future of Republican politics.
Later, Brooks had this retort:
“I ask anyone with a brain larger than the size of a pea to ponder this question: If I am so ineffectual at representing Joe and Jane Citizen, then why do I scare the crap out of Speaker Ledbetter? Why out of all of the races in the state of Alabama does he focus his fire on Mo Brooks?
“Speaker Ledbetter needs to know that I’m not a pushover, that I’ve got toe-to-toe with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and he couldn’t hold her pantyhose.”
Ledbetter too had a response:
“Considering that Mo is a regular on CNN and completely sold out President Trump, it makes sense that he holds Nancy Pelosi in such high regard,” the speaker said. “They have a lot in common.”
State primary elections are May 19.
This story was updated to include the last comment from Ledbetter.