President Trump is popular in Alabama. He won the state by 28 percentage points. So, it might seem surprising that contender for the U.S. Senate, Roy Moore, a former chief justice of the State Supreme Court, is leading Donald Trump’s endorsement Luther Strange, currently serving as the junior United States Senator from Alabama.
“The president ramped up his support for ‘Big Luther’ with several tweets, and campaigned for Strange at a rally in Huntsville on Friday. But many Alabamans don’t see a contradiction in liking Trump but rejecting Strange. Moore’s core supporters, especially, see Strange, a former D.C. lobbyist, as a creature of the very swamp they elected Trump to drain,” writes Politico’s Eric Velasco.
Reich wrote, “Trump spent the first 25 minutes of last night’s campaign rally defending his decision to endorse Luther Strange, the Republican establishment’s pick for the Alabama Senate race in the upcoming Republican primary. Strange's opponent is Roy Moore, who was twice removed as Alabama’s chief justice for defying federal judges, who questioned former President Barack Obama’s citizenship, who said “homosexual conduct” should be illegal, and who suggested the 9/11 attacks were an act of punishment by God.
“ ‘I might have made a mistake. I’ll be honest, I might have made a mistake,’ Trump told the crowd. Why? Not because Moore is totally unqualified to be a U.S. Senator. No, Trump said his reason for doubting his endorsement of Strange was that if Strange loses, the media will accuse Trump of being ‘unable to pull his candidate across the line’ and cast the loss as a ‘total embarrassment.’ ”
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| On the left is Luther Strange, the right is Roy Moore |
Alabama’s would-be senator has a long history of bucking the system, suffering the consequences—and bouncing back.
By Eric Velasco
