Moore & Jones neck-and-neck with Most of the Vote Counted

RadioOnFire.com - Republican Roy Moore and Democrat Doug Jones are locked in a neck-and-neck race in Alabama's special Senate election, with both campaigns bracing for a long night.

Moore and Jones each had 49.2 percent of the vote with more than four-fifths of precincts reporting, according to the Associated Press. The candidates were separated by fewer than 500 votes out of more than 1.1 million votes. Both candidates are running strong in areas that form their base of support around the state.

The close returns provided no definitive sign whether Democrats would stage their first statewide win in a Senate race in decades, or whether Republicans would retain Attorney General Jeff Sessions' old Senate seat despite a raft of sexual misconduct allegations against Moore.

The outcome will have outsized consequences for President Donald Trump and the Republican agenda on Capitol Hill, given the party's already tenuous 52-48 majority. Politically, it will either be a boon or embarrassment for Trump, who advocated strongly for Moore in the campaign's final days.

And the outcome could provide tea leaves for the 2018 midterms, setting the stage for a potential wave election if Jones wins — or tempering Democratic enthusiasm after the party's strong performance in last month's off-year elections if Moore prevails.

Moore’s campaign was rocked in November by accusations of sexual assault and other sexual misconduct, which gave Jones a rare opening in a state President Donald Trump won by nearly 30 points in 2016. Public polls of the race have shown both Moore and Jones with leads, and Democrats have flooded Jones’ campaign with online donations to try and push him to a historic victory.

Moore, meanwhile, lost support from Senate Republicans, including the National Republican Senatorial Committee, after a number of women accused him of pursuing relationships with them when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said Moore should expect to face an immediate ethics investigation if he wins, while other senators — including NRSC chairman Cory Gardner — have said that the Senate should vote to expel Moore if he is elected. But President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee rejoined the race on Moore’s behalf in the final weeks, with the president saying repeatedly that he would not stand for Alabama electing a Democrat.

Source: Politico