Controversial former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore took a major step Tuesday in writing the next chapter of his political life. Moore defeated Senator Luther Strange in a Republican runoff for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Moore will now face Democrat Doug Jones in a general election December 12th. For analysis on the results we hear from David Mowery, an independent political consultant in Montgomery.
Interview highlights
On the national narrative that Moore’s win is a rebuke of President Donald Trump because of his endorsement of Luther Strange:
“That’s the easy narrative. Most of the time people learn the wrong lessons from elections and in this case I don’t think that’s correct at all. I think it has a lot more to do with dynamics on the ground. Having a former chief justice that is very strong with the hard right and that’s a good portion of the electorate, especially in a Republican primary in our state, and having a flawed, appointed candidate in Luther Strange … I think the election was decided outside of Trump or Bannon or Palin or anybody really.”
On the shape of the general election for Senate:
“I think it really depends on how much money the national Democrats can pump in and how much money the national Republicans can pump in. Roy Moore is right at 50-50 with the general election electorate usually. But this is a different dynamic because this is a special [election]. You don’t have anything else driving turnout to get Democrats or Republicans to the polls. So it’s almost like anything can happen.”
On Democrat Doug Jones’ chances in the race:
“I think that they’re not great. But I think that this may be the perfect storm … If the Senate Leadership Fund or the Trump people or whatever want to link him to national Democratic figures and really kind of go in on some of the cases that he’s been involved in and things like that, I think that he could have trouble. On the other hand, Roy Moore is a flawed candidate, not great fundraiser … Doug has a chance, but it’s a slim chance.”