"I see some old Republicans here too," Senate candidate Roy Moore joked to a friendly crowd at a young Republicans event Thursday night in Robertsdale.

Roy Moore

Overall, laugh lines were scarce as the former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice spoke at a gathering hosted by the Baldwin County Young Republicans, but the mood was relaxed and congenial. Speaking beforehand, Moore said he was enjoying the campaign trail. The oft-controversial figure is part of a crowded field vying to take the Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions when he became attorney general and filled, at least in the interim, by former Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange.

"In the past, there's been times I didn't enjoy races ... I wasn't as relaxed," Moore said. "I'm relaxed. I enjoy talking to people. I feel much freer now that I can talk about everything. I'm not inhibited. Being a judge, sometimes you feel like you can't talk."

Of three dozen or so people present, only a handful appeared to fall into the 20-or 30-something bracket. Young or not, the crowd seemed receptive to a message that was long on principle and short on policy.

Moore gave a preview of his thinking beforehand, when asked about a recent ruling that Pensacola must remove a cross that has been displayed in a public park for decades. The judge in that case expressed overt dissatisfaction with his own ruling, saying it was necessitated by the prevailing interpretation of the First Amendment's establishment clause

"I'm not familiar with the law that says you can't have a cross in a public park," Moore said. "And that's the whole point. I think this is exemplary of what people are tired of. They're tired of having their history erased. They're tired of having their faith erased. They're tired of having their rights taken away. And I think it all is because of judges who supposedly hold their nose and do what they know they shouldn't be doing. And I think that typifies what's going on in our country and I think people are fed up with it."

"I think people are tired of that," he said. "They should be tired of a country run by federal district judges, and that seems to be what's happening in our country."

Moore expanded on his point during his address to the group, arguing that all three branches of government have become prone to overreach and a return to constitutional fundamentals is needed to reverse a resulting trend of moral decline.

"It may seem like a good thing for a court to give people rights, but there's no end to it," he said. "I'll bring up an example, for younger people." He cited a 1965 Supreme Court ruling that overturned a Connecticut law barring married couples from buying contraceptives. "The next couple of years after that, they went to unmarried couples. Then they went to children. Then they went to Roe v. Wade, they went to sodomy, and it's a continual etching, 'til now we're talking about kids being taken to doctors to alter their body parts, by parents who believe they're a different gender," he said. "We're in a crazy society."

"They should impeach judges that go off and make weird rulings about things," he said, arguing that Congress had power to reshape the nation's court system. "That's all they have to do."

"I am running for the Senate of the United States," Moore said. "Why? Well, I think maybe I can add something to the discussions in Washington, D.C. Maybe I can bring a little bit of my military background ... I think I know a little bit about judges, and the Constitution."

"If I'm elected to the United States Senate, I'll go up there and try to help them understand why we have separation of powers, check and balances, the 10th amendment, the principle of federalism," he said. "Why we the people really do control the government."

Moore fielded only one question on specific policy. Asked about a proposal in President Donald Trump's budget that would redirect Gulf of Mexico oil and gas royalties from Alabama and other states to the federal government, and whether the loss of funding would cripple efforts to build a new I-10 bridge in Mobile, Moore seemed unfamiliar with the issue. He did, however, express general support for the bridge.

Moore got his strongest applause of the night when he said he was against funding Planned Parenthood. But the remark came as he tried to make a bigger point: That putting a defunding measure inside a healthcare plan was the kind of political trickery that he hates, regardless of whether Democrats or Republicans are doing it.

"It's not about funding Planned Parenthood and they know it. It's about socialized medicine," he said. "Why didn't they defund Planned Parenthood before when they passed the budget? They use things. They deceive people. What do they do behind closed doors?"

Event organizer Isaiah Pyritz, 20, said the Baldwin County Young Republicans had invited a series of senate candidates to speak. Trip Pittman spoke last month, and a date with Mo Brooks was in discussion, he said. The group had also reached out to Luther Strange, he said.

"I felt like we needed to bring in one of the highest-profile candidates," Pyritz said of the invitation to Moore. "I think he has an outstanding shot at winning this ... He got up in there and he spoke from his heart. That's what people want."

As for the dearth of audience members who were actually both Republican and young, Pyritz said he thought younger people tended to focus too exclusively on presidential elections.

"I think young people need to start realizing ... true change does not start in Washington," he said. "True change starts in your local city."