Jones wins Senate seat in blow to Trump
Alabama victory thrills Democrats
BIRMINGHAM (Reuters) – Democrat Doug Jones won a bitter fight for a US Senate seat in deeply conservative Alabama on Tuesday, dealing a political blow to President Donald Trump in a race defined by sexual misconduct accusations against Republican candidate Roy Moore.
The stunning upset makes Jones the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Alabama in a quarter-century and will trim the Republicans’ already narrow Senate majority to 51-49, making it more likely Democrats will retake the chamber in November’s congressional elections.
Jones, who cast himself on the campaign trail as the candidate who could reach across the aisle and get things done in Washington, is expected to take office early in January, after the results are certified.
His election was not expected to affect pending votes in Congress on funding the government or overhauling the US tax code, as Republican congressional leaders have vowed action on those bills before Christmas.
With 99% of the vote counted, Jones led by 1.5 percentage points over Moore, who refused to concede.
Meanwhile, Democrats said on Wednesday their Senate victory in Alabama could lead to a sweeping comeback for the party in 2018 elections while Republicans sought to assess blame for a defeat in one of the nation’s most conservative states.
“Democrats can win everywhere and now we are seeing that,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez told reporters, citing recent wins in governors races in Virginia and New Jersey, as well as various local races around the country.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said the defeat of Moore reflected a distaste among voters for Trump’s policies, which he said help the wealthy and powerful to the detriment of the middle class.
“Things are looking good for us,” Schumer told reporters. “If they [Republicans] continue to run the government for the benefit of the few special powerful wealthy interests, there will be many more Alabamas in 2018.”
The Alabama campaign split the Republican Party with Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief White House strategist, working hard for Moore as part of his broader campaign against more centrist Republican leaders.
Republican rivals of Bannon, who has returned to his executive position at the right-wing Breitbart News site, were quick to blame him for the defeat.
“After Alabama disaster GOP must do right thing and DUMP Steve Bannon,” Republican Representative Peter King said on Twitter on Wednesday. “His act is tired, inane and morally vacuous. If we are to Make America Great Again for all Americans, Bannon must go! And go NOW!!”
The ugly campaign drew national attention and split the Republican Party following accusations by several women that Moore sexually assaulted or pursued them when they were teens and he was in his 30s.
Moore, 70, a Christian conservative twice removed from the state Supreme Court in Alabama for ignoring federal law, denied the allegations and said he did not know any of the women involved.
Trump endorsed Moore even as other party leaders in Washington walked away. Jones, 63, a former federal prosecutor, portrayed the campaign as a referendum on decency and promised the state’s voters he would not embarrass them in Washington.
“I have always believed that the people of Alabama have more in common than divides us,” Jones told cheering supporters at his Birmingham victory party.
Trump tried to cast the win in a different light. The president had joined establishment Republicans in the primary by backing Luther Strange, who filled the seat when Jeff Sessions left to serve as Trump’s attorney-general. After Moore won the Republican nomination, Trump wholeheartedly endorsed Moore.
“The reason I originally endorsed Luther Strange (and his numbers went up mightily), is that I said Roy Moore will not be able to win the General Election. I was right! Roy worked hard but the deck was stacked against him!” Trump said on Twitter.
Network exit polls, however, showed Trump was not a factor in the decision for about half of Alabama voters.
“It had zero to do with Donald Trump,” Republican US Rep. Bradley Byrne of Alabama told MSNBC on Wednesday. The race was “a purely weird, unique election” not a harbinger of the 2018 midterm elections.