Sen. Luther Strange is in the midst of a special election to keep his seat but trails former Alabama Supreme Court justice Roy Moore. | Butch Dill/AP Trump's Alabama rally to support Strange to be held Friday

President Donald Trump’s rally in support of Sen. Luther Strange, initially scheduled for Saturday, will now be held Friday, according to Strange's campaign.

Trump had announced earlier this week that he would campaign for Strange (R-Ala.) in Huntsville, Alabama, on Saturday, writing on Twitter that “’Big Luther’ is a great guy who gets things done!” Strange’s campaign announced Monday afternoon that the rally featuring Trump would in fact take place at 7 p.m. Friday.


Neither the White House nor a spokesman for Strange immediately responded to emails asking why the event had been moved up a day.

Strange, appointed by former Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley to fill the seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, is in the midst of a special election to keep that seat but trails former Alabama Supreme Court justice Roy Moore by nearly 9 percentage points, according to the Real Clear Politics polling average.

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Strange, who has Trump’s endorsement, is widely considered to be the preferred candidate of Washington Republicans, while Moore, who was twice thrown off the bench, has built his campaign on attacking Senate GOP leadership and pledged in a fundraising email that a Moore victory would mean “the END of Mitch McConnell's reign as Majority Leader."

