Maverick defeats Trump’s pick for Senate
Donald Trump suffered a backlash from his own supporters after his pick was defeated in the race to be Republican nominee for a senate seat in Alabama. The victory of Roy Moore, an outspoken evangelical Christian, sent shock waves through the Republican establishment.
DONALD TRUMP, the US president, suffered a stinging rebuke from many of his own supporters after an archconservative triumphed over his pick to be the Republican nominee in a high-profile Senate race in Alabama.
The stunning victory of Roy Moore, an outspoken evangelical Christian, who rode to the polls on horseback, sent shock waves through the Republican establishment in Washington yesterday.
It indicated that similar anti-establishment candidates could upend next year’s midterm US senate elections.
Mr Trump, and Mike Pence, the vice-president, had campaigned in Alabama for Luther Strange, 64, a former Alabama attorney general who was backed by $10million from a political committee linked to Mitch Mcconnell, the Republican leader in the Senate.
Mr Strange had been appointed temporarily to fill the Senate seat left vacant by Jeff Sessions, when he was appointed US attorney general in February. But the campaign exposed divisions within Mr Trump’s inner circle as Steve Bannon, his former chief strategist, campaigned enthusiastically for Mr Moore.
Sarah Palin, still a high-profile figure with the party’s grass roots, and Ben Carson, a member of Mr Trump’s cabinet, also publicly backed Mr Moore.
White House aides indicated Mr Trump was “embarrassed” at the result and blamed Mr Mcconnell for convincing him to back the wrong candidate.
The president immediately deleted tweets he had sent backing “Big Luther” – Mr Strange is 6ft 9in tall – and declared Mr Moore a “really great guy”.
Later Mr Trump said: “We have a man who’s going to be a great senator. I’m very happy with that. I’m very happy with him.”
At his victory party Mr Moore, a long-time critic of Washington, said: “We have to return the knowledge of God and the Constitution to the United States Congress.”
He took a call from Mr Trump after his nine percentage point win, and confirmed he would back the president. Mr Moore said: “Don’t let anybody in the press think that because he supported my opponent I do not support him and support his agenda.”
But he declared his success a message to other party leaders, including Mr Mcconnell, that “their wall has been cracked and will now fall”.
During the campaign Mr Moore wielded a handgun on stage as he defended the right to bear arms.
A week before the vote he declared he didn’t believe in evolution.
He has called homosexuality “an inherent evil” and Islam a “false religion”.
Mr Moore is now the favourite to win the seat in December as Alabama has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1992. During the campaign, Mr Bannon told voters in Alabama that the Washington elite thought they were “a pack of morons” and the elite were facing a “day of reckoning”.
Speaking at the victory party he suggested there would be further primary challenges by outsiders to sitting Republican senators next year.
Mr Bannon said: “You’re going to see, in state after state, people that follow the model of Judge Roy Moore, that do not need to raise money from the elites. Who is sovereign, the people or the money?”
Should Mr Moore, 70, a Vietnam veteran, win in December he would be one of the most radical senators elected in recent history.