2017 United States Senate special election in Alabama


A special election for the United States Senate in Alabama took place on December 12, 2017, to fill a vacancy in the U.S. Senate through the end of the term ending on January 3, 2021, arising from the resignation on February 8, 2017, of Jeff Sessions to serve as the 84th United States Attorney General. Democratic candidate Doug Jones defeated Republican candidate Roy Moore by a margin of 21,924 votes. Jones is the first Democrat to win a U.S. Senate seat in the state since 1992.
On February 9, 2017, Governor Robert J. Bentley appointed Luther Strange, the Attorney General of Alabama, to fill the vacancy until a special election could take place. Bentley controversially scheduled the special election to align with the 2018 general election instead of sooner. When Kay Ivey succeeded Bentley as governor, she rescheduled the special election for December 12, 2017.
Jones, a former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, won the Democratic primary election. Moore, a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama, competed with Strange and Mo Brooks in the August 15, 2017, Republican primary; the two highest vote-getters, Moore and Strange, advanced to a runoff. President Donald Trump supported Moore's opponent Strange during the primary runoff, in addition to much of the Republican establishment in the Senate, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who made the success of Strange's candidacy a major priority. Trump's efforts on behalf of Strange included a rally in Huntsville, Alabama, plus tweeting, and Vice President Mike Pence also campaigned for Strange. With McConnell's help, Strange outspent Moore by a margin of 10-to-1. However, Moore won the primary runoff on September 26, 2017. This was the first time that an incumbent U.S. Senator having active White House support lost a primary since Arlen Specter lost to Joe Sestak in 2010.
In mid-November 2017, multiple women alleged that Moore had made unwanted advances or sexual assaults on them when he was in his early thirties and they were in their teens, attracting widespread national media coverage of the election. As a result of these allegations, many national Republican leaders and office holders called for Moore to withdraw from the special election or rescinded their endorsements of him. However, Donald Trump and many Alabama Republicans reaffirmed their support. At the time of the revelations, it was too late to remove his name from the ballot. Many Republican leaders proposed shifting their support to a write-in candidate such as Strange. Moore has stated that he never engaged in sexual misconduct, although he has not denied that he approached or dated teenagers over the age of 16 while he was in his 30s. Sixteen is the legal age of consent in Alabama. In late November, retired Marine Colonel Lee Busby launched a write-in campaign.
At 9:23 p.m. CST, the Associated Press called the election for Jones, though Moore refused to concede. Jones is the first Democratic candidate to win a statewide election in Alabama since former Lieutenant Governor Lucy Baxley was elected president of the Alabama Public Service Commission in 2008. Jones was sworn into office on January 3, 2018, becoming the first Democratic U.S. Senator from Alabama since Howell Heflin's retirement in 1997.

Background

Potential appointees

Following then-President-elect Donald Trump's nomination of then-Senator Sessions to be U.S. Attorney General, Robert Aderholt, a member of the United States House of Representatives, had asked to be appointed to the seat. Representative Mo Brooks had also expressed interest in the seat, while Strange had stated before being selected that he would run for the seat in the special election whether or not he was appointed. Other potential choices Bentley interviewed for the appointment included Moore, Del Marsh, the President Pro Tempore of the Alabama Senate, and Jim Byard, the director of the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs.

Republican primary

Campaign

The Republican primary attracted national attention, especially following Trump's endorsement of incumbent Senator Luther Strange. Strange was backed by several key figures within the Republican establishment, most notably Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. His two main rivals in the primary consisted of former state judge Roy Moore and Mo Brooks. While Strange showed no signs of losing the first round of the primary, almost every opinion poll showed him trailing Roy Moore in a runoff. Strange came in second place in the first round of the primary behind Roy Moore, securing a spot in the runoff.
National interest in the race dramatically increased in the month before the runoff. Strange maintained his endorsement from Trump, who campaigned for him in Huntsville during the closing days of the campaign. Trump's endorsement of Strange sparked criticism among his own base, many of whom preferred Moore and detested Strange for his seemingly establishment feel. Several notable people close to Trump broke from the president to endorse Moore, including HUD Secretary Ben Carson and Breitbart Executive Chairman Steve Bannon. Despite the endorsement of Trump, Strange was handily defeated by Roy Moore in the runoff.

Candidates

Nominated

First round

Polling

Results

Runoff

President Donald Trump supported Moore's opponent Strange during the primary runoff, and almost the whole national Republican establishment wanted Strange to win. Trump's efforts on behalf of Strange included a rally in Alabama, plus tweeting.

Debates

Polling

Results

Democratic primary

Candidates

Nominated

Polling

Results

Independents and write-in candidates

Candidates

Declared

Controversies

Roy Moore sexual misconduct allegations

On November 9, The Washington Post reported that four women had accused Roy Moore of engaging in sexual conduct with them when they were teenagers and he was an assistant district attorney in his thirties. One of the women was 14 years old at the time, below the legal age of consent. A few days later a fifth woman said that she had received unwanted attention from Moore when she was 15 years old, and that in December 1977 or January 1978, when she was 16, Moore sexually assaulted her. Moore denied the allegations.
After this, certain Republican leaders and conservative organizations withdrew their endorsements of Moore or asked him to drop out of the campaign. These included Texas Senator Ted Cruz, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Ivanka Trump, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, former Republican presidential nominees Mitt Romney and John McCain, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Ohio Governor John Kasich, Utah Senator Mike Lee, Montana Senator Steve Daines, and House Representatives Barbara Comstock, Carlos Curbelo, and Adam Kinzinger, as well as the Young Republican Federation of Alabama. Other conservative websites and organizations such as National Review urged readers not to vote for Moore. Despite this, Moore continued to receive support from the state party and a week before the election, President Donald Trump strongly endorsed Moore. Following Trump's endorsement, the RNC reinstated their support for him, and Republican leaders said they would "let the people of Alabama decide" whether to elect Moore.
At the time of the revelations, it was too close to the election for Moore's name to be removed from the ballot. Republican officials proposed various ways to promote an alternate Republican candidate. One suggestion was to ask Governor Kay Ivey to delay the special election until 2018, but Ivey said she had no plans to change the election date. Some Republicans such as Senator Lisa Murkowski floated the prospect of a write-in campaign to elect Luther Strange, with Utah Senator Orrin Hatch actively endorsing a write-in campaign for Strange. However, Strange said it was "highly unlikely" that he would run a write-in campaign. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell proposed Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who formerly held the Senate seat, as a write-in candidate. In late November, Retired Marine Col. Lee Busby launched a write-in campaign stating that he thought there is room for a centrist in the race.

Debates

Republican nominee Roy Moore refused to debate Democratic nominee Doug Jones. Moore turned down debate invitations extended by the League of Women Voters, WHNT-TV and AL.com. Jones' campaign said that Jones was "willing to debate Roy Moore anytime, anywhere" and accused Moore of "hiding from the voters, from the media and from his record for weeks." Moore and his campaign stated that he refused to debate Jones because their policy positions were already clear to voters and thus there was no need for a formal debate.

Predictions

Candidates

On ballot

Polling

* Unpublished poll released on December 15
Hypothetical polling--------

;with Roy Moore on ballot and Luther Strange as write-in candidate:

Results

Doug Jones defeated Roy Moore by a margin of 21,924 votes. Voter turnout was 40.54% of Alabama's 3,326,812 registered voters.
Jones won primarily by running up huge margins in the state's major cities. The state's four largest counties—Jefferson, Mobile, Madison, and Montgomery —all gave Jones 56 percent or more of the vote. He carried Jefferson by over 83,800 votes, and Montgomery by almost 30,500 votes; either county would have been more than enough to give him the victory. Jones also dominated the Black Belt. He took over 96 percent of the black vote, and 61 percent of votes from those under 45. While Moore dominated the state's rural areas outside of the Black Belt, he significantly underperformed Trump's totals in those areas, as well as the suburbs such as traditional GOP fortress Shelby County, which Moore won narrowly.
As of December 15, Moore demanded a recount and refused to concede the race, despite being urged by Trump, Bannon, and others to do so. In Alabama, if the final margin of victory is less than 0.5%, then a recount is automatically triggered. If not, then either candidate can request a recount at his expense. However, Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill estimated that a recount could cost anywhere from $1 million to $1.5 million, an amount that would have had to be paid in full when the request is made. Moore had only $636,046 on hand by the time the campaign ended. A number of right-leaning websites pushed conspiracy theories about voter fraud providing the margin for Jones. Merrill noted on December 20 that the only outstanding ballots were 366 military ballots and 4,967 provisional ballots; even if all those votes were for Moore, it would not have been enough to trigger an automatic recount.
Because the number of write-in votes was larger than Jones' margin of victory, the names written in were both counted and listed. Luther Strange, who lost the Republican primary to Moore, received the most write-in votes, followed by former White House aide Lee Busby, U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks, who also ran in the Republican Senate primary, Libertarian write-in candidate Ron Bishop, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Nick Saban, Alabama's head coach, finished in seventh with more than 250 votes.
After the election, Moore filed a lawsuit attempting to block the state from certifying the election and calling for an investigation into voter fraud. On December 28, 2017, a judge dismissed this lawsuit and state officials certified the election results, officially declaring Doug Jones the winner. Jones was sworn into office on January 3, 2018, by Vice President Mike Pence. Jones became the first Democrat to win a statewide race in Alabama since former Lieutenant Governor Lucy Baxley was elected president of the Alabama Public Service Commission in 2008 over Republican Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh. Prior to that, Democrat Jim Folsom Jr. was elected Lieutenant Governor of Alabama in 2006 over Republican Luther Strange. The last Democrat to win a federal statewide election in Alabama was Richard Shelby in 1992, who switched to the Republican Party in late 1994.

Results by county

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