DEVELOPING…
Democrat Doug Jones has defeated Roy Moore in Alabama’s Senate election, according to a projection from the Fox News Decision Desk.
ORIGINAL STORY…
The hard-fought Alabama Senate race between Republican Roy Moore and Democrat Doug Jones remains too close to call, though a Fox News voter analysis shows the Democratic nominee enjoying a lead over his GOP rival.
Jones’ competitiveness is a remarkable development in a deep red state that reflects just how badly Moore has been hurt by a sex scandal.
But the race is still fluid.
With 87 percent of precincts reporting, Jones and Moore both had 49.2 percent, according to incoming returns.
Moore, the former chief justice of Alabama’s Supreme Court, has faced multiple allegations he pursued romantic relationships with teenage girls while he was in his thirties — accusations that have dramatically shaken up the race. He has denied the claims.
Doug Jones, an attorney best known for prosecuting two members of the KKK for the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, initially wasn’t believed to have a realistic chance of winning the seat. Alabama hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate in 25 years.
(AP)
The Fox News Voter Analysis, a new polling technique Fox News is testing to improve coverage, indicates 51 percent of voters on Tuesday think the accusations against Moore are true while 43 percent don’t believe them.
But the data also indicate the voters say party control is more important to their vote than the allegations against Moore.
The analysis shows that 59 percent of voters think Jones has strong moral character, while 57 percent say Moore doesn’t.
Jones, an attorney best known for prosecuting two members of the KKK for the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, initially wasn’t believed to have a realistic chance of winning the seat.
WHY THIS ELECTION IS SO ‘HARD TO PREDICT’
But the Republican Party’s nomination of Moore — and the allegations lodged against him — vaulted Jones to a competitive position as some Republicans abandoned Moore and Democrats became energized.
Alabama hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate in 25 years.
The campaign has not only seen allegations of sexual misconduct, but attempts to oust Moore from the ticket, interventions from top national figures and President Trump’s warning about the result’s implications for his legislative agenda.
Roy Moore, a favorite of religious conservative voters with a long, colorful political history that has both fueled and complicated his rise in Alabama.
(AP)
Trump, who endorsed Moore even as other top Republicans in Washington called on the nominee to drop out of the race, on Tuesday reiterated his support by arguing Moore would vote for his agenda in Congress.
“The people of Alabama will do the right thing… Roy Moore will always vote with us,” the president tweeted.
Trump painted Jones as a liberal “puppet” of Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi.
“Doug Jones is Pro-Abortion, weak on Crime, Military and Illegal Immigration, Bad for Gun Owners and Veterans and against the WALL,” Trump tweeted.
President Trump won 62 percent of Alabama’s vote in the 2016 presidential race.
Most of the attention in the race, though, has centered on Moore. A favorite of religious conservative voters, he has a colorful political history that has both fueled and complicated his rise in Alabama.
He first got national attention in the 1990s as a county judge when he hung a wooden Ten Commandments plaque on the wall of his courtroom.
Benefiting from his popularity after the episode, Moore then ran and won a race for chief justice of the state’s Supreme Court in 2000. But he was ousted after refusing to remove a 5,280-pound granite Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of the state judicial building.
He resurrected his political career in 2012, getting elected chief justice again. But his tenure was short-lived once more: In 2016, Moore was suspended as chief justice after he directed probate judges not to issue marriage certificates to gay couples.
Tuesday’s special election is to fill the seat once held by former Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions, who resigned to become attorney general in the Trump administration.
After Sessions’ resignation, Luther Strange, the state’s former attorney general, was temporarily appointed to the seat in April before a special election could take place. Strange was appointed by then-Gov. Robert Bentley, who later resigned in the cloud of a scandal.
Despite being endorsed by Trump and enjoying the support of a well-funded super PAC connected to Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, Strange went on to lose a runoff to Moore in September.
Last month, though, Moore was hit with multiple allegations that he initiated sexual encounters with teenagers when he was a young attorney in the 1970s.
McConnell called on Moore to drop out of the race and explored options for either removing Moore from the ballot or backing a write-in alternative. He also suggested Moore would face a Senate Ethics Committee investigation if elected.
Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, has said the Senate could take the extraordinary step of voting to remove Moore if he wins, saying he “does not meet the ethical and moral requirements of the United States Senate.”
Alabama’s senior Republican senator, Richard Shelby, said he didn’t vote for Moore and instead wrote in the name of another Republican.
If Moore wins, McConnell will hold a meeting with other Republican senators to discuss the situation with Moore, including whether he should be investigated by the ethics committee, according to a source.
Moore has not backed down amid the accusations, holding multiple rallies with Trump’s former adviser, Steve Bannon, in recent weeks.
“I’m not talking about the accusers today,” Moore said after arriving at his polling location in Gallant, Alabama, on Tuesday. “I’m talking about this race… the people will answer the allegations this evening with the vote.”
Moore added: “This is a very important race for our country, our state and the future.”
After appearing at his precinct on horseback, Moore spent time praying with family, made phone calls and prepared for an election night speech, his campaign said.
Meanwhile, the Jones campaign, which has been working to energize black voters and Republicans turned off by Moore, expressed optimism earlier Tuesday.
“We expect a close election and are going to continue working hard to turn out every single one of our voters until the polls close,” Jones’ campaign manager Wade Perry told Fox News. “We are taking nothing for granted.”
Fox News’ Peter Doocy, Willie Inman, Dan Gallo and Fox Business’ Hillary Vaughn contributed to this report.
