Kim Chandler
Times-News

MONTGOMERY (AP) — Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill announced Tuesday he’s joining a growing field of Republican primary candidates competing for a chance to unseat Democratic Sen. Doug Jones next year.

“Let’s take this Senate seat back and give it back to the people of Alabama,” Merrill said in a news conference at the Alabama Capitol to announce his campaign.

With more than 100 cheering supporters standing behind him, Merrill said Alabama needs a “proven conservative” in the Senate who will help President Donald Trump on immigration, judicial appointments and other issues.

“We have to have someone go to Washington, D.C., that is going to support the president and help the president build the wall to stop the immigration fiasco that is currently ongoing in our nation,” Merrill said.

The crowded field increases the chances that the March 3, 2020 GOP primary will head to a runoff if no candidate tops 50 percent of the primary vote.

The field already includes former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne, former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville, legislator Arnold Mooney and businessman Stanley Adair.

With two statewide elections under his belt and a busy travel and media schedule that takes him to all counties of the state, Merrill is well-known to Alabama voters. That could give him a boost in the crowded field.  But he also faces other well-known candidates including Moore, Tuberville and Byrne, who ran for governor in 2010.

Jones, the sole Democrat to hold statewide office in Alabama, defeated Moore in the 2017 special election to fill the seat that once belonged to Jeff Sessions. Republicans have made reclaiming the Senate seat in the once reliably red state a top priority in the 2020 elections.

In announcing his campaign, Merrill took expected jabs at Democrats, saying Jones would be more suited to representing California or New York.

He said Alabama needs someone who “will stand with the president to stop this socialist overhaul that is attempted to be levied by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi.”

The 55-year-old Republican was elected secretary of state in 2014 and re-elected in 2018. He’s a former member of the Alabama House of Representatives where he co-sponsored the state’s voter ID law that requires people to show a government-issued photo ID at the polls.

As secretary of state, Merrill’s voter roll management has been criticized by some voting rights groups.