Alabama Republicans are set for what will be a fierce runoff in September after no candidate cleared 50% in the state’s US Senate primary.



The controversial former state supreme court chief justice Roy Moore received 39.5% of the vote, ahead of appointed incumbent Luther Strange’s 32.2% on Tuesday night. Representative Mo Brooks, a member of the hard-right Freedom Caucus, finished third with 19.7% and will not make the 26 September runoff. The special election was prompted by the confirmation of former senator Jeff Sessions as attorney general in February.

The race had become a fierce contest about which candidate most embraced Donald Trump. Both Strange and Moore had cited Trump’s election as a sign of divine intervention in human affairs. “President Trump is the greatest thing that has happened to this country,” Strange said this summer. “I consider it a biblical miracle that he’s there.”

In May, Moore proclaimed: “God puts people in positions in positions he wants. I believe he sent Donald Trump in there to do what Donald Trump can do.”

Ultimately, Strange was endorsed by Trump, who backed the Republican incumbent in a series of tweets, including the election day statement “Big day in Alabama. Vote for Luther Strange, he will be great!” The incumbent touted his endorsement from Trump while his opponents attacked Strange for his ties to the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, whom the president had repeatedly attacked in recent days. Brooks campaigned across the state in a campaign bus emblazoned with the banner “Ditch Mitch”, while Moore ran an ad decrying “Mitch McConnell’s DC slime machine … bearing false witness.”

Moore’s strong lead makes him the favorite in the runoff. However, he has long been a controversial figure and has twice been ousted from his position as Alabama chief justice. In 2003, Moore was removed from office after violating a federal court’s order to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments from grounds of the Alabama supreme court. In 2016, he was suspended for refusing to enforce the supreme court’s ruling legalizing gay marriage. Moore later resigned.

Strange benefited from millions of dollars of outside spending on his behalf by superPACs linked to McConnell in the primary, and is likely to receive even more outside aid in the coming weeks. However the former state attorney general is likely to face scrutiny over his appointment to the Senate seat by ex-governor Robert Bentley. Strange was investigating Bentley for ethics violations related to an extramarital affair before his appointment, sparking concerns about conflict of interest and potential obstruction. Bentley later resigned from office after pleading guilty to two misdemeanor charges.

In the Democratic primary, former US attorney Doug Jones overwhelmingly won his party’s nomination with 65.6% of the vote. Jones, who prosecuted two Ku Klux Klan members involved in the infamous 1963 Birmingham church bombing, trounced Robert Kennedy, a political unknown who had previously polled well because of his name. Jones was considered the most credible candidate by national Democrats in the deep red state and had been endorsed by former vice-president Joe Biden and Congressman John Lewis.

Jones will face the winner of the runoff in a December general election.