AFTER ALLEGATIONS of sexual misconduct with teenage girls came to light against Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore, the election now threatens President Donald Trump’s agenda.
MOBILE, Ala. — Three days after allegations of sexual misconduct with teenage girls hit Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore, the race here has become a tossup that threatens President Donald Trump’s agenda in Congress and has split Republicans over how far they’re willing to go to save the seat from a Democrat.
The allegations — that Moore, when he was in his 30s, dated teenagers and had sexual contact with a 14-year-old — come amid a national uproar over sexual harassment by high-profile leaders in entertainment and business, and many GOP senators and other officials swiftly called for Moore to leave the race. Others, including White House officials and Senate leaders, have equivocated.
On Sunday, a senior White House official said Moore “has to do more explaining than he has done so far” but should be given time to do so.
Republicans have only a two-vote majority in the Senate on which Trump’s agenda – including a pending tax cut bill — depends. If they fail to deliver, they risk being rejected by Trump voters in the coming midterm election.
A Moore loss would make the Senate majority even more tenuous. But a win, some GOP strategists fear, could drag down other party nominees in next year’s elections.
A new poll Sunday showed the race in Alabama nearly tied. The Democratic nominee, Doug Jones, a former federal prosecutor who won convictions against Ku Klux Klan members for one of the most notorious crimes of the civil rights era, held a narrow lead, within the poll’s margin of error, the poll by Louisianabased JMC Analytics found. That result would have been unthinkable just days ago in the heart of Trump country.
Moore has shown no signs of stepping aside despite pressure from national party establishment figures he scorns. That has left Republicans unsure of their next steps.
Some say only Trump’s influence could convince Moore — and his devoted supporters in Alabama — to go in a different direction, but it remains unclear if the president would be willing to intervene.
White House legislative director Marc Short tried to avoid committing himself during a television interview Sunday. “There’s no Senate seat more important than the notion of child pedophilia,” Short said in the interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“But having said that, he has not been proven guilty,” Short added, referring to Moore. “We have to afford him the chance to defend himself.”
Short and White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, interviewed on ABC’s “This Week,” both said that Trump would consider the race more fully when he returns to Washington.
Even before the allegations, Moore’s candidacy had split the party into opposing camps reflective of deeper Republican divisions in the Trump era.
Moore’s supporters and conservative activists have celebrated his decadeslong career as a controversial judge representing farright religious views.
Earlier this fall, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon latched on to Moore’s primary campaign against incumbent Republican Sen. Luther Strange, making it a central part of his attack on the GOP establishment.
Centrist Republicans, affluent business leaders — and, crucially, some female voters — have reeled from the attention Moore brought to their state.
Many have already voted with their checkbooks, declining to fund Moore’s campaign. The National Republican Senatorial Committee backed out immediately after the allegations became public last week.
“No amount of money will be able to change — one way or the other — how people decide to vote in light of these very serious allegations,” said Chris Pack, a spokesman for the Senate Leadership Fund, which is allied with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.