Trump: My endorsement opened ‘flood gates’ for Roby

President Trump on Wednesday boasted that his late endorsement of Rep. Martha Roby (R-Ala.) opened the “flood gates” for the Alabama candidate and helped push her to a runoff victory.

In a tweet, Trump congratulated Roby on her win against former Rep. Bobby Bright, an ex-Democrat who threw his support behind the president and switched parties before challenging Roby for the seat he had held until losing to Roby in 2010.

{mosads}

“Congratulations to Martha Roby of The Great State of Alabama on her big GOP Primary win for Congress,” Trump tweeted. “My endorsement came appropriately late, but when it came the ‘flood gates’ opened and you had the kind of landslide victory that you deserve. Enjoy!”

Congratulations to Martha Roby of The Great State of Alabama on her big GOP Primary win for Congress. My endorsement came appropriately late, but when it came the “flood gates” opened and you had the kind of landslide victory that you deserve. Enjoy!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2018

Roby was forced into a runoff against Bright after she fell well short of the majority needed to secure the nomination in a primary election last month.

On Tuesday, she vanquished Bright in the conservative district, taking 68 percent of the vote to Bright’s 32 percent. 

Roby first defeated Bright in 2010 and has won reelection easily since. But her decision in 2016 to pull her support for Trump after the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape’s release opened her up to criticism from Trump loyalists and allowed Bright to attack her as insufficiently supportive of the president in the 2018 primary.

Despite her previous break with Trump, the president offered his endorsement to Roby via Twitter last month, after she had failed to win a majority in the primary. In the same tweet, he went after Bright, calling him “a recent Nancy Pelosi voting Democrat.”

That was a familiar line of attack for Roby, who went after Bright for his 2009 vote for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for Speaker, throughout the primary season.