U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks, who announced his run for U.S. Senate yesterday, spoke exclusively to National File about his goals for the U.S. Senate. Among them, Brooks wants to create a “Senate counterpart” to the House Freedom Caucus, but warns that the Senate has “few principled conservatives” willing to take up the mantle.

“I’m one of the founders of the House Freedom Caucus and I’d love for us to see a Senate counterpart that is exactly like that,” said Brooks. “One of the problems is that there is so few principled conservatives elected in the United States Senate that the principled conservatives, to a certain degree, have not been as successful as the Freedom Caucus on the House side.”

“Perhaps with Mo Brooks in the United States Senate that will help change that dynamic,” Brooks added. “We certainly have some very principled conservatives like Rand Paul, or Mike Lee, or Ted Cruz, or Josh Hawley, just going down the list. But we need to add to it for us to magnify our ability to impact public policy in a favorable way.”

Brooks also warned that Republican leadership in the Senate may oppose his campaign to prevent the political shakeup that would surely ensue should he be elected.

“The establishment Republicans don’t want principled conservatives in the United States Senate, so I anticipate that establishment Republicans, with all their special interest group money, will do everything they can to defeat principled conservatives in all Republican primaries across the United States of America.” Brooks added, “It goes with the turf.”

“My job, and the job of all other principled conservative candidates, is to be successful by helping the public better understand what’s a stake, and who will actually get the job done, as opposed to those establishment Republicans who are apt to cut and run in the face of serious fake news media opposition or socialist Democrat opposition.”

When asked about Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s potential upcoming retirement, and his potential influence in the Alabama Senate race, Brooks said he would not comment publicly. However, he told National File, “I will do my best to ensure that a principled conservative is elected to the Republican Senate leadership. Time will tell whether we have enough principled conservatives to be able to pull that off. Time will also tell whether one of our principled conservatives is willing to run for that position.”

Brooks announced his run for U.S. Senate yesterday and was endorsed by Stephen Miller, a longtime advisor to President Donald Trump.

Tonight, I was honored to speak @MoBrooks_ official campaign launch and formally endorse his run for United States Senate! https://t.co/X2vJV0jXGp

— Stephen Miller (@StephenM) March 23, 2021