Well that’s just BS. Alabama is (was) among the reddest of red states, anyone - and I mean even Steve Wonder - would have said that a Republican replacement for Sessions was a given.
What we got is another lousy candidate, a strictly conservative ideologue with virtually no personality who conservatives love and no one else can stand (think “Ted Cruz”). We know how that movie ends, just look at the vast number of disappointments from the “tea party surge” who have done nothing except mostly, leave.
Big Luther would have kept the seat, as Trump knew. But you get what you got because of a lousy candidate who creeped everyone out and couldn’t even be bothered to campaign the final weekend, not because of Jeff Sessions.
I didn't blame Jeff Sessions. But a choice was made to sacrifice the seat and make Sessions AG. On election day anyone could count Senate seats and realize that the Republican majority was slim at least up through the 2018 election. It would have made some sense to keep Sessions in the Senate.
And that decision is a gift that is giving and giving and giving.