MONTGOMERY, Alabama -- Former Chief Justice Roy Moore is a step closer Wednesday to getting his old job back and said he is grateful to Alabama Republican Primary voters. He called his victory in the chief justice race a vindication after his removal from office over his defiant courthouse display of the Ten Commandments.

"I'm going to stand up for the rights and liberties of the people of Alabama under the Constitution of Alabama and the Constitution of the United States," Moore said at a Montgomery press conference.

Moore received a little more than 50 percent of the vote Tuesday to clinch the Republican nomination for chief justice, according to unofficial returns.

Moore defeated incumbent Chuck Malone and Mobile County Circuit Judge Charles Graddick. He is heavily favored over Democrat Harry Lyon in November.

Moore's campaign was run on a shoestring budget compared to typical judicial races. But he harnessed his name recognition, a grass roots campaign and a conservative primary tide to turn back much better-funded candidates.

The former chief justice said he thought the Tuesday turnout was about moral and social issues, as well as people being concerned about the intrusion of federal government.

"I think people are interested in our day and time about the moral issues that affect this country. I think they are interested in family values. I think they are interested in their rights and liberties and freedoms," Moore said.

Moore is hoping to regain the position he lost in 2003 when a state panel expelled him from office for failing to comply with a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state judicial building.

Moore said he sees his victory as a vindication because it shows that voters like him in that position "Is it a vindication? Yes. Is a restoration? Definitely. The people put me there the first time. The people did not remove me. And the people (will) have restored my position if I'm successful in November against the Democratic challenger," Moore said.

"I recognize we've still got a race to run and it's very important that we run a good race," Moore said.

What he will not do, if victorious in November, is re-erect the granite Ten Commandments monument that led to his ouster from office, he said.

"I would not return the Ten Commandments because it would be more about me or a monument about me. That's what I'm identified with and I think it would be detrimental to the true issue. The true issue is whether we can acknowledge the sovereignty of all mighty God over the affairs of our state and our law. That I will not back down from. I will always acknowledge the sovereignty of God and I think we must," Moore said.

Moore's campaign emphasized his experience noting that he had served as a military police officer, a local judge and chief justice.