Politics

No Moore: Doug Jones Defeats the Republican

By News & Guts
Welcome

JACKSON, AL - NOVEMBER 14: Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Judge Roy Moore speaks during a campaign event at the Walker Springs Road Baptist Church on November 14, 2017 in Jackson, Alabama. The embattled candidate has been accused of sexual misconduct with underage girls when he was in his 30's.

Roy Moore has lost the Alabama Senate race to Doug Jones.  A Democrat will be representing the state of Alabama in the Senate for the first time in more than 20 years.

Doug Jones has defeated Roy Moore and will be the new junior senator from Alabama. Jones won the senate seat that was vacated by Jeff Sessions when President Donald Trump appointed him as his Attorney General, thinking that the state was a safe Republican bet.

Just 13 months ago, Pres. Trump carried the state in a landslide, winning the 2016 presidential election by nearly 30 points. It is worth noting that the president didn’t support Moore, the eventual Republican candidate, during the primaries. The president only endorsed Moore shortly after the Washington Post published a story with allegations from women who said that Moore pursued them when they were teenagers.

Updates (more to come):

From Dan:

The Democrats Senate win in Alabama:
Women, minorities and the young were the decisive difference.  Especially women.  Some Republican women crossed over; some independent women who voted for Trump last year flipped the other way, and Democrat women got to the polls in heavy numbers.
These three things especially true in suburbs.  President Trump and the Republican Party went all in.  But this night they are losers. A portent of things to come?  Maybe.  Could be.  We shall see.  But it would be a mistake for Democrats to read tonight as anything more than a possible start toward turning things around.

Doug Jones:

 More:
John Merrill:
AL Secretary of State John Merrill: “I’m not very comfortable in visiting with Judge Moore or anybody in his campaign tonight. The people of Alabama have spoken tonight. They’ve made their voice heard loud and clear.”
NBC: 
Joe Biden:
Bill Clinton:
WAPO:
From Trump:
Jim Acosta:
Vox:

Great article from Vox: “It’s not just scandal: Moore lost in Alabama because the GOP agenda is toxically unpopular: Republicans are now in trouble everywhere”

Cory Booker:

Jeff Flake:

More from Dan:

An earthquake has shook the nation and out of the land of the Crimson Tide comes a wave of Blue.

We will likely find out it was powered by women, minorities, and the young. Yes it was a perfect storm, with allegations against Roy Moore of child molestation. Yes, there are a lot of caveats. And yes the Democrats had a strong candidate in Doug Jones.

But let’s repeat. A year after Alabama gave their vote to President Donald Trump by nearly 30 percentage points, they have elected a Democrat to the United States Senate. If you had suggested such a development a few months ago, you would have been accused of smoking something pretty expensive.

As long as we have free elections, this country has a chance. As long as the tide of decency swells in our electorate, we have a chance. As long as people organize, and people believe, this country has a chance.

Steady, I have cautioned. Steady, is a chapter in my book. Steady is the word of the day. The great pendulum of our nation is maybe swinging its way back to normalcy.

I have been thinking that the last time I felt this way on a day to day basis might very well have been when I was a child following the daily desperate news reports on the momentous battles of the Second World War. There was a deep sense that the fate of the world hung in the balance and there were tides of optimism and despair.

But after early defeats and dark days, the great tide swung towards freedom. There were pitched battles ahead back then, but liberty emerged victorious. There is that feeling once again tonight.

Nate Silver, FiveThirtyEight:

 

Hillary Clinton: 

Ana Navarro: