Firebrand jurist Roy Moore on Tuesday won the Alabama Republican primary runoff for US Senate, defeating an appointed incumbent backed by both US President Donald Trump and deep-pocketed allies of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
In an upset certain to rock the US Republican establishment, Moore clinched a nine-point victory over Senator Luther Strange to take the Republican nomination for the seat previously held by US Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Moore is to face Democrat Doug Jones in a Dec. 12 special election.
Photo: AFP
It was a political resurrection for the 70-year-old former Alabama chief justice who was twice removed from those duties after taking stands for public display of the Ten Commandments and against gay marriage.
Moore, in his victory speech, returned to themes of God and government, saying that he had “never prayed to win this campaign,” but only that’s “God’s will be done.”
“We have to return the knowledge of God and the constitution of the United States to the United States Congress,” Moore told a cheering crowd in his victory party in Montgomery.
Moore predicted the race could be a bellwether for next year’s midterms, saying the victory tells the establishment in “Washington, DC, that their wall has been cracked and will now fall.”
The race has pitted Trump against his former strategist Steve Bannon, who had argued Moore was a better fit for the “populist” movement.
Introducing Moore, Bannon told a frenzied crowd that the victory was a repudiation of the “fat cats” of Washington who pumped millions into the Alabama race to boost Strange.
Bannon declared Moore’s win a victory for Trump, despite the president’s support for Strange.
Moore said he supports the president and his agenda.
After the race, Trump tweeted his congratulations to Moore, saying that “Luther Strange started way back & ran a good race.”
Trump and Moore spoke by telephone later on Tuesday night.
The Senate Leadership Fund, a super political action committee with ties to McConnell, had spent an estimated US$9 million trying to secure the nomination for Strange.
Group president and CEO Steven Law on Tuesday said that Moore won the nomination “fair and square” and the group will now back him, adding that Moore “has our support, as it is vital that we keep this seat in Republican hands.”
In a statement, McConnell congratulated Moore and said Senate Republicans are committed to keeping the seat in the party’s hands.
Even though Alabama has not sent a Democrat to the Senate in two decades, Democrats are hopeful they have an opening in the December election against Moore.
Jones is a former US attorney best known for prosecuting the Klansmen who killed four girls in a 1963 church bombing.
He on Tuesday said that he wanted to focus the race on the “kitchen table issues” that matter to all Alabamians, “healthcare, education for our kids, jobs and a living wage.”
Strange supporters were at least somewhat divided on how they will approach the general election in December.
“It will be closer than if Luther had won” the nomination, said Perry Hooper, a former state lawmaker who predicted some Republicans will stay home in December or even vote for Jones.
However, Hooper, who served as Trump’s Alabama campaign chief, said he is all in for Moore.
“Ultimately, this is about helping the president,” Hooper said. “This is a Republican state, and Roy will help the president.”
Moore was twice elected chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court and twice removed from those duties.
In 2003, he was removed from office for disobeying a federal judge’s order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state courthouse lobby.
Last year, he was permanently suspended after a disciplinary panel ruled he had urged probate judges to defy federal court decisions on gay marriage and deny wedding licenses to same-sex couples.
He denied that accusation.
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