Republican Sen. Richard C. Shelby endorsed his former Alabama Senate colleague for an expected 2020 Senate bid. “I believe he will be a formidable candidate,” Shelby said Thursday.

About a year ago, Jeff Sessions was forced out of his role as attorney general by President Donald Trump. Prior to that, Sessions served in the Senate for about two decades. He was first elected in 1996.

Sessions would take on the Democratic incumbent, Doug Jones, who narrowly won a Dec. 2017 special election runoff to fill the remainder of Sessions’ Senate term. 

Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, declined to say whether he would endorse Sessions, and said he did not discuss it with Trump at a rally the two of them attended Wednesday night.