Alabama Senate race sees 2 emerge for GOP

Roy Moore, Luther Strange to compete in Sept. 26 runoff.

HOMEWOOD, ALA. — Roy Moore, a former chief justice of the state Supreme Court, and Sen. Luther Strange emerged from a crowded Republican field on Tuesday in a special Senate primary in Alabama, and will face off for their party’s nomination next month in a runoff election — a contest that will test President Donald Trump’s clout in a deeply conservative state.

Neither Strange, backed by Trump and millions of dollars in spending by outside groups, nor Moore, a favorite of evangelical voters, received more than 50 percent of the vote in a race that evolved into seeing who could embrace Trump more when the leading contenders were closely aligned on policy.

During the campaign, U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks, a member of the House Freedom Caucus from northern Alabama, attacked Strange over his appointment by a now-disgraced governor and his links to a Washington party establishment that supported him. But now Brooks’s voters loom as the most pivotal constituency up for grabs in the Sept. 26 runoff.

That contest will hinge on what Alabama Republicans are more uneasy with: Strange, an appointed senator many believe has been foisted upon them by state and national party insiders, or Moore, a controversial jurist who was once taken off the bench after he refused to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the Supreme Court building.

Trump is expected to campaign in the state for Strange, and outside Republican groups are already preparing to attack the lightly funded Moore with a negative ad campaign. Alabama Democrats, who went to the polls on Tuesday to pick their own nominee, will be watching the Republican race closely and may get national help should Moore emerge as the Republican standard-bearer. Doug Jones, a former United States attorney in Birmingham, easily won the Democratic primary.

The general election in Alabama will be held on Dec. 12.