Moore was accused of pursuing relationships with women as young as 14 when he was in his 30s during his failed 2017 Senate bid

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Disgraced Alabama Republican Roy Moore has announced he is running for US Senate again in 2020 after failing to win the seat two years ago amid sexual misconduct accusations.

Moore is defying his party with his return to the political stage, and faces a crowded Republican primary field as he aims for an eventual rematch against the Democratic senator Doug Jones, who won against him in the 2017 special election to fill the seat previously held by former US attorney general Jeff Sessions.

“I believe in America. I believe we’ve got to have politicians that go to Washington and do what they say,” Moore said during his announcement on Thursday.

Some state and national Republicans, worried that Moore is too polarizing and could jeopardize what should otherwise be a reliable Republican seat, have discouraged him from entering the race. Republicans see retaking the Alabama seat as a top priority in 2020.

“Alabama can do better than Roy Moore,” the state’s senior senator, Republican Richard Shelby, told reporters shortly before Moore’s announcement.

He declined to say what he would do to try blocking Moore but said he believed “a lot” of Republican groups would oppose him.

The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, concurred in a brief interview with the Associated Press before the announcement.

“He can do what he wants to, but we’re certainly going to oppose him in every way,” the Kentucky Republican said.

Donald Trump tweeted last month that Moore “cannot win” and said Republicans need to retake the seat in the once reliably red state.

“Republicans cannot allow themselves to again lose the Senate seat in the Great State of Alabama,” Trump wrote.

Moore brushed aside that criticism on Thursday, saying the people of Alabama are angry and want Washington to stay out of their elections

“Can I win? Yes I can win,” he said.

The Democratic senatorial campaigncommittee spokesman, Stewart Boss, said national Republicans who supported Moore’s 2017 campaign “have nobody to blame but themselves for the chaotic primary that’s escalating in Alabama”.

Jones said in a statement that Moore’s candidacy “will make a divisive Republican primary even more extreme”.

During the 2017 race, six women accused Moore of pursuing romantic or sexual relationships with them when they were teenagers as young as 14 and he was an assistant district attorney in his 30s. Two accused him of assault or molestation.

Moore denied the accusations and has said he considered his 2017 defeat, when he lost to Jones by 22,000 votes out of 1.3m cast, “a fraud”.

Moore retains a strong following among some evangelical voters in the state. He was twice elected as the state’s chief justice but was twice stripped of those duties after a judicial ethics panel said he defied, or urged defiance of, federal court orders regarding same-sex marriage and the public display of the Ten Commandments.

A crowded Republican primary field is competing to challenge Jones. Representative Bradley Byrne, the former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville and legislator Arnold Mooney have already announced bids.