Alabama voters selected a conservative outsider candidate to be the Republican nominee to fill a Senate seat, according to US media tallies, dealing a blow to Donald Trump and party leaders who backed a more conventional candidate.

Roy Moore, the victorious candidate, is best known for twice being removed as the state’s most senior judge – for refusing a court order demanding he remove a Ten Commandments moment from the courthouse and for defying the Supreme Court’s decision legalising same sex marriage.