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Jeff Sessions announces bid for Alabama senate

Former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Thursday his intent to run for his former seat in the U.S. Senate.

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Sessions spent 20 years representing Alabama in the Senate, from 1996 to 2016, before leaving to become President Donald Trump's first attorney general.

In the ad released Thursday night, Sessions said, "the president's doing a great job for America and Alabama and he has my strong support."

Sessions served 21 months as attorney general under Trump before submitting his resignation in November 2018. His relationship with the president soured after he recused himself from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election meddling. Frustrated over his recusal, which he considered disloyal, Trump frequently criticized Sessions during his tenure.

Sessions had been the first senator to endorse Trump during the 2016 presidential election. With his announcement Thursday, Sessions joins a race for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate which already includes U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne and former Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore, AL.com reported.

The winner of the Republican primary will face Democrat Doug Jones, who won the race for Sessions' seat in 2017.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.