In an impressive show of his statewide appeal to conservatives, Judge Roy Moore seems sure to finish first in tonight’s Alabama’s special GOP Senate primary to fill Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s old seat. With more than three-fourths of the vote in, Moore was leading odd by a 40/32 margin, with Brooks at 20 percent.
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The lower the turnout, the better for Mr. Moore, who many expect to be the top vote-getter. The first ouster was issued for his refusal to follow a federal court order to remove the monument of the Ten Commandments from a state courthouse.
If a candidate does not get more than 50 percent of Tuesday’s vote, the primaries will go to a September runoff. The primary runoff will be held September 26, and the general election is December 12. A Cygnal poll released last week showed almost 31 percent of those surveyed backed Moore, while almost 23 percent supported odd and 18 percent favored Brooks.
On the Democratic side, Robert Kennedy Jr.is a top contender, despite having no prior political experience. “It’s one thing to talk about defense of the Second Amendment, it’s another thing to have lived through an assassination attempt and to reaffirm your commitment to the Second Amendment right to bear arms”, Brooks said. Mark Levin, a less-enthusiastic Trump supporter, also endorsed Brooks and criticized the president for getting behind odd.
“He’s helping me in the Senate”, Trump said.
During the 2016 Republican presidential primary, Brooks supported Texas Sen.
“You will see the establishment quaking in their boots if we defeat Luther Strange”, Brooks told supporters at a tractor dealership in northern Alabama Monday evening.
Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore rode on horseback to the polls to vote in Alabama’s special primary election Tuesday.
Alabama Republicans, who during the Obama years drove Democrats to near-extinction, were operating as if the victor of their primary and runoff would glide toward victory.
Bentley appointed odd to the Senate in February to fill Sessions’ seat. There’s a big cloud hanging over him, mostly in the way that he was appointed by former Governor Robert Bentley.
But though odd was an imperfect candidate, McConnell’s allies favored him over Brooks, a House Freedom Caucus member who vowed to wreak havoc on McConnell’s already troubled right flank. Jones, received a late-primary endorsement from former Vice President Joe Biden.
“Alabama needs Judge Moore there doing what he’s always done: fighting to protect our constitutional rights to life, religious liberty, and the freedom to protect ourselves and our families”.
That cash edge helped him overcome the dubious circumstances that led to his appointment to the Senate to fill the seat of now-Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Establishment Republicans in the Senate Leadership Fund spent more than $3.5 million on ads in the race.
But Moore was the clear first-place finisher, earning 39% of the vote, compared to 31% for odd and 19% for Brooks, with 95% of precincts’ results tallied.
The GOP is testing the reach of both Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Moore’s supporters are hopeful that the brutal fight between Brooks and unusual will drive more of Brooks’ supporters toward his campaign. “I support impeachment of judges and justices who knowingly and intentionally violate that principle”. “Unusual will win in September”, said Steven Law, the former McConnell chief of staff and Senate Leadership Fund president. But you say they’re going to the polls on horseback. Over 70% of the voters cast a Republican ballot in this race.
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Voting was steady at St. James Methodist Church on the outskirts of Montgomery, where retired teacher Tommy Goggans said he turned out specifically “to keep Roy Moore from getting it.” Why? “If the Washington crowd wants somebody, the people of Alabama generally don’t”.
