ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Roy Moore just beat Luther Strange in the Republican runoff for Alabama’s U.S. Senate seat, by roughly 10 percentage points.

And now both Democrats and the establishment wing of the Republicans are shaking in their boots — or at least, they ought to be.

This wasn’t a win so much for a man as it was a message from voters for a principle — for a movement, one that elitists have been trying to stamp for years is still alive.

It’s a movement that goes like this: We’re the American citizens, you’re the political class, and you work for us. It’s a populist-minded movement, a Christian conservative movement, the same type that brought President Donald Trump to the White House in the 2016 elections — the same type that fueled the wins of tea party candidates in the last several elections.

Moore was supposed to go down in flames. That’s what the media told voters. That’s what everyone from Sen. Mitch McConnell to Trump wanted.

Yet it was Moore the voters chose.

“CONSERVATIVE VICTORY HAS COME TO #ALSEN!” Moore tweeted. “Because of you, tonight, the establishment has been DEFEATED in Alabama! THANK YOU!”

Trump, to his credit, immediately sent out his own tweet of congratulations to Moore, wishing him a “WIN” in the election in December against his Democratic contender, Doug Jones. But Trump also erased from his Twitter feed several messages he had put out in recent times in support of Strange.

Regardless, all eyes now on the next election.

Moore will win. And he’ll win because voters are sick and tired of ruling elites in Washington, D.C., who think they’re untouchable, beyond accountability, and worse, smarter than the citizens who pay their salaries.

Moore will win because he’s battle-tested in the art of standing tall for principle, not politics — putting his own judge job on the line to uphold traditional Christian and conservative beliefs over special interest demands.

But most of all, Moore will win because he carries a torch for the frustrated conservative class of Americans who’ve been sidelined by progressive interests — who’ve been steamrolled by an elitist political class — and who’ve been told, year after year, their particular brand of beliefs are archaic, out-of-date, discriminatory and intolerant. Watch out, establishment politicos: Moore’s coming to D.C. and he’s bringing a copy of the Constitution in one hand and a Bible in the other. He’s not going to be your average, deal-making minion.

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