Katie Britt

Katie Elizabeth Britt (née Boyd; born February 2, 1982) is an American politician, businesswoman, and attorney who is the junior United States senator from Alabama since 2023. A member of the Republican Party, Britt is the first woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate from Alabama and the youngest Republican woman ever elected to the Senate. She was president and CEO of the Business Council of Alabama from 2019 to 2021, and was chief of staff for her Senate predecessor, Richard Shelby, from 2016 to 2018.

Britt was born as Katie Elizabeth Boyd to Julian and Debra Boyd on February 2, 1982, in the city of Enterprise. She was raised outside Fort Rucker in Dale County, Alabama, and worked at her family's small business throughout her youth. In her youth, she was an attendee of the Girls State leadership program, and was elected to a governor position at the conference in 1999. A graduate of Enterprise High School, Britt was a cheerleader there and one of 19 valedictorians upon graduation in 2000. She enrolled at the University of Alabama, where she majored in political science and was elected president of its Student Government Association. She graduated in 2004 with a Bachelor of Science degree. In 2013, she received a Juris Doctor from the University of Alabama School of Law.

After she graduated from the University of Alabama, Britt joined the staff of U.S. Senator Richard Shelby in May 2004 as deputy press secretary. She was later promoted to press secretary. In 2007, she left Shelby's staff and worked as a special assistant to University of Alabama president Robert Witt. At the University of Alabama School of Law, she participated in Tax Moot Court.

After law school, Britt first worked at Johnston Barton Proctor & Rose LLP in Birmingham. When the firm shut down in March 2014, Britt and 17 other former employees joined the Birmingham office of Butler Snow LLP. She founded the firm's government affairs branch. In November 2015, Britt took a leave of absence from Butler Snow to return to Shelby's staff, working on his reelection campaign as deputy campaign manager and communications director.

In 2016, Shelby named Britt his chief of staff. She became a top advisor to Shelby and head of his Judicial Nomination Task Force. In May 2016, Yellowhammer News named Britt one of "the people who will be running Alabama in a few years".

In December 2018, Britt was selected as president and CEO of the Business Council of Alabama, effective January 2; she was the first woman to lead the organization. As head of what Alabama Daily News called one of the state's "most influential political organizations", she focused on workforce and economic development through tax incentives, and addressed the state's prison system and participation in the 2020 United States census. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Britt led a "Keep Alabama Open" effort to self-govern business affairs by avoiding shutdowns and maintain employment. In April 2021, she was elected to the Alabama Wildlife Federation's board of directors. Britt resigned from her positions at the Business Council of Alabama in June 2021, amid media speculation that she would run for the U.S. Senate.

Elections

2022

On June 8, 2021, Britt announced her candidacy in the Republican primary for the 2022 Senate election in Alabama. Britt, who had never previously run for public office, started out the race polling at 2%, but gradually climbed in the polls as the race went on.

As a Senate candidate, Britt publicly aligned herself with former President Donald Trump. Although Britt gave credence to Trump's false claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election, she has never outright claimed the election was "stolen". She advanced to a runoff in the Republican primary against Representative Mo Brooks. Trump officially endorsed Britt on June 10, 2022, calling her a "fearless America First warrior". He had previously withdrawn an endorsement of Brooks. Britt defeated Brooks in the runoff on June 21, 2022, with 63% of the vote. She then handily won the general election on November 8.

After winning the election, Britt became the first woman elected a U.S. senator from Alabama (previous female U.S. senators from Alabama had been appointed to the position). She was also the youngest Republican woman elected U.S. senator and the second-youngest woman overall (Democrat Blanche Lincoln being the youngest).

Tenure

Britt took office on January 3, 2023. Following leadership elections for the 118th United States Congress, she did not say whether she supported Mitch McConnell or Rick Scott for Senate Minority Leader. Before taking office, Britt was selected as the only incoming senator to serve on the newly formed Republican Party Advisory Council of the Republican National Committee.

Britt's first vote in the U.S. Senate was opposing a Biden administration nominee to a Department of Defense position. During her first month in office, she co-sponsored eight bills and visited the Mexico–United States border twice. She continued these visits to the border while co-sponsoring bills to curtail illegal immigration, as well as funding for a border wall.

In February 2023, CoinDesk reported that Britt was one of three members of Alabama's congressional delegation who received money from FTX, the defunct cryptocurrency exchange, alongside Robert Aderholt and Gary Palmer. Britt's office responded to an inquiry from CoinDesk by stating that the money had been donated back. As a member of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Britt joined 22 other senators in March 2023 in calling for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution requiring a balanced budget each year, while also criticizing the Biden administration's budgetary plans.

The same month, Britt advocated for Huntsville, Alabama, to remain as primary location of the United States Space Command. The Biden administration had previously indicated it was considering relocating it to Colorado, even though a U.S. Air Force study found Colorado to be the fifth-best location. Britt charged that the Biden administration was "politicizing" the decision, saying that "selecting a fifth-place finisher would obviously prioritize partisan political considerations at the expense of our national security, military modernization and force readiness".

In March 2023, after Mexican law enforcement occupied a port in Quintana Roo, Mexico, owned by the Birmingham-based Vulcan Materials Company, Britt joined other members of Alabama's congressional delegation in negotiating the forces' withdrawal. Britt called the takeover unlawful and met with Mexican officials at the Washington, D.C. embassy, condemning the actions taken at the port. The Mexican personnel withdrew from the port by the end of the month.

During the 2023 United States debt-ceiling crisis, Britt voted against the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023. In a statement issued after the vote, Britt said, "we must do more", having wanted more spending cuts than were in the bill.

Committee assignments

• Committee on Appropriations
  • Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies
  • Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies
  • Subcommittee on Homeland Security
  • Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development
  • Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies
• Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
  • Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection
  • Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation and Community Development
  • Subcommittee on National Security and International Trade and Finance
• Committee on Rules and Administration

Caucuses

• Senate Republican Conference

Britt holds conservative views.

Abortion

Britt identifies herself as pro-life, a stance that was scrutinized during the 2022 U.S. Senate election. Her initial television advertisements emphasized her view on abortion, asserting that life begins at conception and equating late-term abortions to murder. But in May 2022, just before the first round of the Republican primary, rival candidate Michael Durant criticized Britt's abortion stance. He pointed out a resolution passed by the Student Senate while she was president of the University of Alabama Student Government Association that demanded that morning-after pills be made available at the university health center's pharmacy, which was already prescribing the pills at the time. In response, Britt's campaign claimed she neither supported nor voted on the resolution and was unable to veto it due to the limitations of her position. The Alabama Political Reporter corroborated these statements based on The Crimson White articles from the time of Britt's presidency. Furthermore, Britt's campaign insisted she would "uphold the sanctity of life" if elected senator.

Education

In July 2021, Britt supported a motion from Alabama Governor Kay Ivey to ban the teaching of critical race theory in public schools. She has been called a "vocal proponent" of school choice by Yellowhammer News.

Foreign policy

Britt is a critic of the Chinese Communist Party. In August 2022, she charged the Biden administration with inaction and "total weakness" in regard to China, highlighting humanitarian crises in China, as well as its dominance in manufacturing, saying that China was "taking jobs". In September 2022, she accused the social media platform TikTok of being a "Trojan horse" for the Chinese Communist Party; other American lawmakers have expressed similar concern about TikTok as a potential security threat. In October 2022, Britt pledged to co-sponsor a bill introduced by Senators Tommy Tuberville and Tom Cotton to keep Chinese-owned companies from purchasing American farmland.

Gun rights

Following the passing of the Protecting Our Kids Act in June 2022, Britt told 1819 News that she believes red flag laws are a "gateway to push [a] disarming agenda". She opposes gun laws that she says infringe on the Second Amendment. She has called the Second Amendment "a critical check against the timeless tyranny of government".

Healthcare

In August 2021, Britt wrote a column calling for an open discussion and prioritization of mental health. Her column also expressed her wish to combat the opioid epidemic and suicide rates in the United States. In May 2022, Britt called "affordable access to quality mental health care and resources" a "major component" of her Senate campaign's platform. She supports efforts to eliminate the stigmatization of mental illness.

Immigration

Britt supports reducing legal immigration "to a sensible level" and prioritizing skills and merit over family associations. She has said she will introduce legislation to prevent birthright citizenship from applying to children whose parents entered the country illegally. She also supports and has pledged to sponsor the RAISE Act, first introduced by Senator Tom Cotton in 2017.

Technology

Following her election to the U.S. Senate, Britt named expansion of broadband access as one of her areas of focus. After the release of the Twitter Files in December 2022, Britt joined Alabama representatives Jerry Carl and Barry Moore in calling for reform to Section 230, specifically criticizing Big Tech and saying that she was looking forward to congressional hearings "getting to the bottom of what occurred at Twitter in 2020".

Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023

Britt was among the 31 Senate Republicans who voted against final passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023.

Katie Britt is married to Wesley Britt, a former NFL player. They met while attending the University of Alabama, and married on March 8, 2008. They reside in Montgomery, Alabama, and have two children. The Britts attend First United Methodist Church in Montgomery.