All eyes on Alabama
THE most contentious US election of 2017 came to its tumultuous conclusion yesterday as polls shuttered in Alabama’s closely-watched Senate contest between a Republican dogged by sexual assault accusations and a Democrat seeking an upset win.
The race between Republican Roy Moore and Democrat Doug Jones is being seen as a harbinger of whether the Republican Party can retain its slim Senate majority in next year’s mid-term elections.
It carries extraordinarily broad implications, and serves as a test of the partisan nature of American politics at a time of acrimonious debate about President Donald Trump and his policies.
Polls closed across the state at 7pm and the race was being considered a toss-up.
According to exit polls, 45 per cent of voters think the accusations against Moore are “false,” while 49 per cent believe them to be true.
Trump has made the high-stakes vote a test of his brand of populism by urging loyalists to elect Moore, a 70year-old ultra-conservative former state chief justice.
If Moore loses in this deeply conservative southern state, which Trump won by 28 points last year, Republicans will see their majority slip from 52 to 51 in the 100-seat senate, reducing their margin for maneuver to the bare minimum.
Moore, who wants to bring his Christian religious activism to Washington, has for the past month been fighting accusations he fondled two underage girls in the late 1970s when he was a state prosecutor in his 30s.
Having avoided reporters for weeks, Moore was asked about the allegations after he and his wife Kayla arrived on horseback to vote at a fire station in the town of Gallant.
“We’re done with that,” said Moore, clad in a cowboy hat. “Let’s get back to the issues.
“This is a very important race for our country, for our state and for the future.” The scandal has put a Senate seat from Alabama within reach of Democrats for the first time in a quarter century.
And it has created a major headache for Republicans. The party’s leaders and members of Congress called on Moore to step down after the allegations first surfaced, to no avail. Now, regardless of the outcome, they face a no-win situation.
If Moore wins, the Republican brand risks being sullied by associ- ation with the judge, particularly at a time of national upheaval over sexual harassment and the right of victims to be heard.
Should Moore win, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has signaled that the ethics committee will conduct an investigation into Moore, which has the potential to prompt a vote on whether to expel him from the chamber.