WASHINGTON – Former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore is holding a hefty lead in Alabama’s special election GOP runoff against interim Sen. Luther Strange in a race that analysts claim embodies a war inside the GOP between establishment and anti-establishment forces.
Breitbart Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle put it even more strongly, suggesting the race is “a flashpoint in a larger war inside the GOP for the heart and soul of the party.”
“A vote for Strange is a vote against President Trump’s agenda, the agenda he successfully campaigned on last year defeating 16 fellow Republicans to win the GOP nomination and beating Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton in the general election,” Boyle wrote. “A vote for Moore, with Strange’s Trump endorsement, is a vote for that Trump agenda.”
Moore’s candidacy represents a referendum against the “swamp,” Boyle argues.
“If Alabamians send Moore to the U.S. Senate, they will be sending a message to the swamp in Washington, D.C., that they do not support Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and others’ efforts to dilute the agenda that President Trump campaigned on,” he wrote.
Former Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley, who resigned amid scandal, had appointed Strange to the seat vacated when Sen. Jeff Sessions became U.S. attorney general.
Moore came away from the initial Republican primary on Aug. 15 with 39 percent of the vote, while Strange, who is backed by the GOP establishment, had 32.8 percent. The third leading GOP candidate, Republican Rep. Mo Brooks, took 20 percent.
According to a new JMC Analytic survey released Monday, Moore holds an 8 percent lead over Strange. The survey shows the primary race has tightened slightly, but Moore maintains the lead, 47 percent to 39 percent. Thirteen percent of respondents were undecided.
Moore also maintains a commanding lead over Strange in a survey conducted by a pro-Moore PAC, A Time for Choosing.
The survey, conducted Sept. 9 to Sept. 12, shows 50 percent of respondents support Moore while just 37 percent back Strange.
Eighty-three percent of respondents supporting Moore also were aware that Trump endorsed Strange.
The victor of the Sept. 26 runoff race next week will face Democrat Doug Jones. The Republican nominee is expected to prevail in the GOP-dominated state.
Trump announced Saturday he will head to Alabama next weekend and campaign on behalf of Strange.
“‘Big Luther’ is a great guy who gets things done!” he tweeted.
Trump voiced support for Strange in the August primary.
McConnell and his allies endorsed Strange before the initial Republican primary in August, stoking criticism that Strange represents the Washington establishment.
With the exception of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who has said he refrains from getting involved in primaries involving incumbents, Strange has the support of nearly all his colleagues in the Senate.
“I hope he makes it,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told Politico. “‘Cause if there’s no place for Luther Strange, then we’re all in trouble.”
“Luther’s opponent wants to send a message. I think in Luther’s case he’s extremely qualified, already here, already a good senator,” said Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, who chairs the agriculture committee on which Strange serves as a member.
The McConnell-aligned Senate Leadership Fund has provided his campaign with millions of dollars in ads.
Meanwhile, Moore has been making political hay out of the establishment support for Strange.
In a fundraising email, he accused the McConnell of “dirty tricks and schemes … like turning out Democrats to vote for his crony Luther Strange in our Republican primary.”
“Judge Roy Moore in the U.S. Senate means the END of Mitch McConnell’s reign as Majority Leader,” Moore added.
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, slammed Moore in a recent interview, asserting the former Alabama Supreme Court justice would not be a productive member of the Republican caucus.
“Look at his track record,” Cornyn said. “It’s highly likely that he could be disruptive. We’re talking about somebody who has been removed from the bench twice.”
Moore was first removed, on a federal judge’s order, from the Alabama Supreme Court more than a decade ago for refusing to remove a statue of the Ten Commandments from the Supreme Court building.
Voters put him back in the same position. He then was removed in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s creation of same-sex “marriage” when he issued an administrative order advising Alabama judges with with respect to a current marriage case, the state law regarding marriage was still in force.
“They feel like maybe I would take the same kind of attitude at the United States Senate,” Moore said of Senate Republicans in an interview with Politico. “And maybe I would. Because I stand for what I believe in.”
Strange also has his share of political baggage. While serving as state attorney general, his office investigated Bentley. Bentley then appointed him to the Senate seat before resigning.
Freedom Caucus member Mo Brooks, the Alabama congressman who finished third in the August primary, endorsed Moore on Saturday and criticized negative ads run by a pro-Strange PAC.
“Strange-McConnell forces care not one twit about the truth,” Brooks told the Times Daily. “It’s time for us to fight back. This Senate race is down to this. We are in an epic battle between the people of Alabama who put America first and the Washington swamp that hopes to buy our Senate seat and put America last.”
Brooks said he already had voted for Moore via absentee ballot.
Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon also has thrown his support behind Moore.
Bannon, at a Conservative Action Project meeting on Aug. 28, emphasized that his support for Moore is not about undermining or subverting the president, but is a move to disrupt the GOP establishment, specifically to rebuke McConnell.
Former GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin also endorsed Moore last month, arguing he “has what it takes to stand up to the out-of touch political establishment.”
Palin is expected to campaign in Alabama for Moore this week.
Boyle said most of the Washington establishment “that despises Trump’s agenda – including the Chamber of Commerce, the NRA, McConnell’s forces, and Karl Rove and his allies – have aligned behind Strange.”
“Most of the supporters of the president’s agenda – including Fox News anchor Sean Hannity, former White House chief strategist and Breitbart News executive chairman Stephen K. Bannon, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin – have aligned behind Moore’s campaign.”
