‘Devastating blow’ for Trump as Jones wins
Democrats don't win in Alabama do they? This is stronghold Republican territory isn't it? ..
Democrats don't win in Alabama do they? This is stronghold Republican territory isn't it? Well not anymore.
This Doug Jones victory is a first for the Democrats for many years and sends the message that there are limits to what people will tolerate in their politicians.
Roy Moore was probably never going to win big. His extreme Christian conservatism and controversial views on homosexuality and same-sex marriage were always going to alienate liberals, Democrats and even moderate Republicans.
But he was always going to win. Until, that is, the Washington Post published the articles that blew his campaign apart.
The paper claimed it had interviewed several women who said Moore had been sexually inappropriate with them when they were teenagers and he was in his thirties.
He denied the accusations but the sheer volume of allegations weighed against him in many people's minds.
From that moment on it was going to be difficult for Roy Moore.
His campaign team claimed it was fake news; that the liberal media were waging a vendetta against Moore and that they had paid the women to speak out and tarnish his reputation.
But in the end, enough people in Alabama believed the women to make his victory impossible.
The implications are huge for wider American politics. It means the Democrats are that little bit closer to regaining the Senate in the mid-term elections next year.
Republicans will have a 51-49 Senate majority, leaving them with just a single vote to spare if the Democrats stick together.
It will energise and excite the Democrat movement, bolster candidate recruitment and almost certainly increase fundraising ahead of those mid-term elections.
The Democrats will also delight in picking up a seat in the Deep South, parking their tanks on staunchly Republican lawns.
It will also be a devastating blow to Donald Trump, who came out so publicly for Roy Moore at a rally just over the border in Florida last Friday.
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Trump will hate the fact that Moore lost, even though he wasn't his first pick for the seat. But he will do what he always does, and blame someone else. And most likely it will be the media.
But the truth is the people of Alabama – even some Republicans – looked long and hard at Roy Moore and didn't like what they saw.
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