(l to r) Mo Brooks, Roy Moore, Luther Strange
A few days ago I wrote about the upcoming primary election in Alabama, that was held on August 15th, to select a candidate to fill the remainder of Attorney General Jeff Sessions senatorial term, expiring in 2020.
As a summary, on the Republican side, while the ballot contained 10 names only three seemed to have a legitimate chance to advance. Barring any one candidate receiving 50% of the vote, the top two will move on to a run-off election.
The three candidates
Former Alabama Attorney General, Luther Strange, who had been appointed by disgraced and later indicted former Governor Robert Bentley. Strange was the pick of Senate leader Mitch McConnell who’s Senate Leadership Fund Super PAC spent millions on advertising in support of Strange. He was also endorsed by President Donald Trump.
Former Chief Justice of Alabama’s Supreme Court, Roy Moore, most recognized for his fight to keep the Ten Commandment Monument on display in Alabama’s Judicial Building and more recently for his refusal to honor the Supreme Courts ruling on same-sex marriage.
Current Representative of Alabama’s Fifth Congressional District in the US House of Representatives, Mo Brooks, elected to his seat in the Tea Party wave election of 2010 and a member of the House’s Freedom Caucus.
The Results (from the New York Times 100% reporting)
| Candidate | Vote | Pct. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roy Moore | 164,524 | 38.9% | |
| Luther Strange* | 138,971 | 32.8 | |
| Mo Brooks | 83,287 | 19.7 | |
| Trip Pittman | 29,124 | 6.9 | |
| Randy Brinson | 2,621 | 0.6 | |
| Bryan Peeples | 1,579 | 0.4 | |
| Mary Maxwell | 1,543 | 0.4 | |
| James Beretta | 1,078 | 0.3 | |
| Dom Gentile | 303 | 0.1 | |
| Joseph Breault | 252 | 0.1 |
From Alabama’s Secretary of State voter turn out was 17.95%
Not surprising Donald Trump had to weigh in taking credit for how he helped Luther Strange make it to the run-off:
On the Democratic side Attorney Doug James easily won the nomination gaining 66% of the vote.
The run-off between Roy Moore and Luther Strange will be held on September 26th with the general election held on December 12th. I only hope that in the next 6 weeks, my fears of dirty tricks against Roy Moore by Mitch McConnell and the rest of the GOP leadership don’t come to fruition in the fashion that took place in Mississippi’s run-off election between Thad Cochran and Chris McDaniel in 2014.
#DefundTheGOP
markE watkins 