Just-departed White House chief strategist Steve Bannon is breaking from President Donald Trump in the closely watched Alabama Senate special election.

During a closed-door meeting with powerful conservatives in Washington last week, Bannon declared that he's supporting former state Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore over Trump-endorsed incumbent Sen. Luther Strange, according to two people who were present. Bannon, who just over a week ago left the White House to rejoin the conservative website Breitbart News, said he is looking to activate the conservative base to Moore’s cause.


Appearing before a meeting of the secretive Conservative Action Project, Bannon made it clear that he supported Moore, a favorite among evangelicals, but was careful not to cast it as a break with the president. Rather, he said, it was an act of opposition toward Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who is supporting Strange and has made the race a top political priority.

Bannon presented the late September primary runoff as a defining battle between the conservative base and the GOP establishment, saying it pits those who elected Trump against those who resisted him. The Conservative Action Project is an umbrella organization of dozens of prominent groups representing various viewpoints of the conservative and tea party movements.

Bannon declined to comment. Since leaving the White House, the flame-throwing populist has expressed a desire to wage political combat against what he describes as moderate forces — both inside and outside the White House — who are trying to pull Trump to the middle.

The Conservative Action Project gathering, at the downtown offices of the Family Research Council, drew a number of prominent conservatives, including former Attorney General Ed Meese, former American Spectator publisher Alfred Regnery, and former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell. Jerry Boykin, a top Family Research Council official, was also present.

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Bannon’s support for Moore could reshape the race. He has long enjoyed a close relationship with Robert Mercer, the reclusive billionaire hedge-fund manager who has funded his political projects — and who could invest on Moore’s behalf.

Breitbart, which has been funded heavily by Mercer, has published a number of flattering stories about Moore in recent days. Last week, it promoted an endorsement Moore received from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. The candidate also sat for an extended interview with the outlet.

Trump has declared his support for Strange, tweeting multiple times before the Aug. 15 primary that he had his full backing. Yet with polls showing Strange trailing significantly, some White House aides are becoming less committed in their backing. How far the president goes to demonstrate his support ahead of the Sept. 26 runoff remains an open question.

Some administration officials say it is up to Strange to show that he is viable. In the first round of voting earlier this month, Moore finished with 39 percent, while Strange took 33 percent.

Trump offered a full-throated endorsement of Strange, tweeting his support repeatedly and then recording a robocall touting the incumbent shortly before Election Day. Strange, a former Alabama attorney general, was tapped in February to fill the Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions once he was appointed U.S. attorney general.

“He's helping me in the Senate; he's going to get the tax cuts for us. He's doing a lot of things for the people of Alabama and for the people of the United States," Trump said in the recorded announcement. “Thank you very much, and vote for Luther Strange."

But Strange faces an uphill battle against Moore, a well-known figure in Alabama who drew national attention after defying a federal court order to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments from a state courthouse in 2003. The favorite of evangelicals also later defied the Supreme Court’s ruling legalizing same-sex marriage.

McConnell and his allies have dropped millions of dollars to promote Strange. Moore, in turn, has made that establishment support of the incumbent the rallying cry of his campaign.

"My establishment opponent is beholden to Mitch McConnell," Moore wrote in one recent fundraising email. "McConnell’s bankrolling his campaign."