“It is even more vital now that Congress takes action to protect the investigation,” said Jones, in a statement emailed to AL.com Wednesday. “I remain deeply concerned about the targeted and well-funded efforts by Russia to undermine our democracy and influence our elections, particularly those yet to come.” 

Whitaker, 49, is a relatively inexperienced Republican Party loyalist from Iowa who has called for limiting Mueller’s investigation.

He wrote last year on CNN.com that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein should limit the scope of Mueller’s investigation to stop him from delving into Trump’s finances.

“If he doesn’t, then Mueller’s investigation will eventually start to look like a political fishing expedition. This would not only be out of character for a respected figure like Mueller, but also could be damaging to the President of the United States and his family — and by extension, to the country,” he wrote.

He also said on CNN last year that he could see a scenario in which Sessions’ replacement doesn’t fire Mueller but “just reduces his budget to so low that his investigation grinds to almost a halt.”

“I think Jeff will run for his Senate seat in 2020,” said Jonathan Gray, a political strategist based in Sessions home of Mobile.

“If you put a gun to my head, I don’t think he’s going to return to Alabama and return to electoral politics,” said Jess Brown, a retired political scientist from Athens State University and close observer of state politics.

Steve Flowers, a political observer and former state legislator, tweeted on Wednesday that Sessions should run for the Senate.

“He would win easily,” Flowers said in the tweet