Sen. Richard Shelby Richard Craig ShelbySenate GOP eyes early exit Dems discussing government funding bill into February GOP short of votes on Trump's controversial Fed pick MORE (R-Ala.) says that a potential victory for Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore in the state's upcoming GOP runoff would prompt anti-establishment Republicans similar to former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon to "pop out of the woodwork" and sow discord in the 2018 midterm elections.

Shelby, the senior Alabama senator, told The New York Times that if Moore wins the runoff election against Sen. Luther Strange Luther Johnson StrangeSessions hits back at Trump days ahead of Alabama Senate runoff The biggest political upsets of the decade State 'certificate of need' laws need to go MORE (R-Ala.) on Tuesday, the Senate seat would become vulnerable to a Democratic challenge.

But if Strange wins, Shelby said, the incumbent would be sure to emerge victorious in the December election.

“If Roy Moore wins, Bannon and all the other of those people will pop out of the woodwork everywhere,” Shelby told the Times.

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Bannon, who left the White House last month and returned to the helm of the conservative Breitbart News, is set to speak at a pro-Moore rally on Monday, alongside "Duck Dynasty" star Phil Robertson.

Moore, a controversial former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, is running to unseat Strange, who was chosen earlier this year to fill the Senate seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsGOP set to release controversial Biden report Trump's policies on refugees are as simple as ABCs Ocasio-Cortez, Velázquez call for convention to decide Puerto Rico status MORE.

President Trump endorsed Strange ahead of the state's GOP Senate primary in August. But Moore has won the support of Bannon, and has cast himself as a hardline conservative cut from the same cloth as the president.

Moore took first place in the Republican primary last month, finishing ahead of Strange. But neither candidate earned a majority of the vote, sending them to a runoff election, which is set for Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Trump is campaigning for Strange. He attended a packed campaign rally for the incumbent senator in Huntsville, Ala. Friday night, and urged supporters to vote for Strange in a tweet Saturday morning.

Strange is also backed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellOcasio-Cortez to voters: Tell McConnell 'he is playing with fire' with Ginsburg's seat McConnell locks down key GOP votes in Supreme Court fight Video shows NYC subway station renamed after Ruth Bader Ginsburg MORE (R-Kent.), an establishment Republican declared an enemy by Bannon.