Sessions not interested in another Alabama Senate run after Shelby retirement

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Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions is not interested in making another run for the U.S. Senate in Alabama in light of GOP Sen. Richard Shelby announcing Monday he will retire after 42 years in Congress, Fox News has learned.

A source close to Sessions told Fox News "no" when asked if Sessions plans to run for the seat in 2022.

In a Monday afternoon statement provided to Fox News, Sessions called Shelby’s retirement "a significant moment in Alabama history," recalling the 20 years they served together in the Senate.

"No one in the history of the Senate or Congress has delivered more financial benefits for Alabama than Senator Shelby," Sessions said. "His work has been of monumental importance."

Sessions, 74, and Shelby, 86, served for years together as Alabama's two senators. Sessions, who had a falling out with then-President Donald Trump over the Russia investigation, lost his comeback Republican bid last year to now-GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville in the state’s Republican primary after taking hits from Trump.

SEN. RICHARD SHELBY, R-ALA., TO RETIRE AFTER 2022

"Today I announce that I will not seek a seventh term in the United State Senate in 2022," Shelby said Monday. "For everything, there is a season."

Tuberville, the former Auburn football coach who defeated incumbent Democratic Sen. Doug Jones in November, would become the state's senior senator after Shelby’s retirement.

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A Republican source familiar with Alabama politics said possible candidates in a GOP primary in the heavily Republican state could be Business Council of Alabama leader Katie Boyd Britt, a former Shelby staffer; Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill; and Rep. Mo Brooks.