Culture war icon in Senate runoff

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Ousted Chief Justice Roy Moore rode his horse “Sassy” into a sweet runoff spot against Sen. Luther Strange and now gets to play usurper to deep-pocketed Republican forces in Alabama’s Senate primary.

Evangelical voters cherish Moore as a culture war icon after he was twice stripped of his chief justice duties for refusing to remove a biblical monument he installed in a state judiciary building and for resisting federal gay marriage rulings.

And Moore is relishing his opportunity to repudiate what he calls “silk-stocking Washington elitists” with an antiestablishment campaign against the candidate backed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Strange’s campaign got the endorsement of President Donald Trump and benefited from millions of dollars in advertising by a super political action committee tied to McConnell. But he trailed Moore, who rode his horse to his local polling station on Tuesday, by about 6 percentage points, or about 25,000 votes in the low-turnout special election for the seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

The winner of the Sept. 26 runoff will advance to a December contest against Democratic nominee Doug Jones, best known for winning convictions of two Klansmen in the 1963 Birmingham church bombing that killed four little girls.