While the tea party may not be the national force it once was, its remnant is still having a massive impact on national electoral politics. Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Rand Paul (R-KY) are fundraising for a candidate who makes them look like moderates by comparison: Judge Roy Moore of Alabama.

Judge Moore, best known for sticking his nose at the robed unelected lawyers of the Supreme Court while serving as chief justice of the Alabama high court, crushed his establishment-backed GOP opponent Luther Strange in a primary battle last month. He is now the favorite to defeat his Democratic opponent, Doug Jones, in a special election and become Alabama’s new U.S. Senator.

“I’ll stand with Rand Paul, Mike Lee and Ted Cruz on the front lines of the fight against the Washington Establishment,” Moore said to his supporters in an e-mail earlier this year. His policy plan is to secure America’s borders, stop liberal activist judges, repeal Obamacare and Common Core, and end free trade agreements that cripple American sovereignty.



Because of Moore’s strong conservative bona fides, Paul and Lee will headline a Washington, D.C. fundraiser for Moore on Nov. 1. Their support of this true maverick Senate candidate has establishment conservatives up in arms.

“One doesn’t even need to focus on Moore’s tenuous grasp of the Constitution to recognize he is unfit for office. Law and order aside, he’s an embarrassing caricature of what a conservative Christian ought to be. He’s the embodiment of the worst right-wing stereotypes and he will absolutely be tied around the GOP’s neck as a giant, cowboy-hatted albatross,” media commentator Becket Adams said in a Washington Examiner op/ed article criticizing Lee and Paul for their full-throated support of Judge Moore.

Lee brushes off any concerns about Moore’s radical or unhinged views. He told the Examiner that he “does not agree with any of his colleagues 100 percent of the time and believes Judge Moore would be a better defender of the Constitution than his Democratic opponent.”

While Moore’s eccentricities and excesses may make beltway conservatives and libertarians cringe, the voters of Alabama see things rather differently. They see the opportunity to elect a genuine native son with the courage to fight the corrupt oligarchy that has turned Washington D.C. from the shining city on the hill into a wretched swamp. On Dec. 12, the people of Alabama will have a chance to shake the political class to its core and – with Lee and Paul by their side – put Judge Roy Moore into office as Senator.