MIDLAND CITY, ALABAMA — Supporters of Republican senate candidate Roy Moore say they are not concerned with the growing number of women who have accused the former judge of sexual abuse.

“That’s allegations,” 56-year-old Paula Rochon told ThinkProgress. “In this day and time, it seems all you have to do is make an allegation and it can ruin everything that someone’s worked for their whole career, and I don’t think that’s fair… It doesn’t change my mind one bit.”

To Rochon, the women’s claims are part of a Hillary Clinton- and George Soros-funded conspiracy to take down Republicans.

“I think they were totally behind it because they want to get more of the Democrats in there,” the Ozark, Alabama resident said.

Rochon was not alone in disbelieving the women who said Roy Moore had tried to — or succeeded in — initiating sexual contact with them when they were underage and he was in his 30’s. Barbara Struble, a 75-year-old from Dothan, Alabama, said the media has spun the allegations into a character assassination against a judge she has admired for decades.


“Anybody that speaks about Judge Moore in that way — it’s a lie, it’s a set-up, and they need to point their fingers back at themselves,” Struble said.

Speaking before Moore took the stage at his election eve “Drain the Swamp” rally, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) told the hundreds of people in the crowd that he believes accuser Beverly Young Nelson forged Moore’s signature in her yearbook.

“Liar!” the crowd chanted back.

Barbara Struble CREDIT: Kira Lerner

Numerous women pointed to false media claims that Nelson forged the yearbook signature, saying that because the yearbook is not longer credible, there is now no evidence at all to corroborate the accusers.

“I don’t see any cold, hard facts smacking me in the face saying, ‘yes she did this,'” Rochon said.

Moore supporter Cindy Skarda told ThinkProgress it was “a little suspect” that the accusations didn’t come out earlier, in one of Moore’s previous campaigns.


“I really believe in America, like most Americans should believe, that you are innocent until proven guilty,” said the 61-year old woman who attended the rally with female friends. “Everybody should be afforded that. We shouldn’t ask him to step aside from the Senate race based on salacious allegations.”

Skarda castigated the media for turning those allegations into a conviction.

“There’s no crime that’s been committed,” she said. “I believe a lot of those allegations are being proven to be altered and fabricated.”

Paula Rochon said the women's liberation movement has set the country back. CREDIT: Kira Lerner

As ThinkProgress reported earlier this month, Moore has previously co-authored a book that asserted women should not be allowed to run for elected office. Moore supporters told ThinkProgress that position doesn’t bother them either.

“This might sound really weird, but I think that that’s been the downfall of our country — when women had to have it all, getting in there and trying to be men and trying to be out in the workforce,” said Rochon, a long-distance truck driver.

Sheryl Kilpatrick of Ozark, Alabama was also unconcerned that Moore had endorsed such a position.

“I think it’s a man’s job,” she said about politics.

Moore supporters told ThinkProgress they also aren’t bothered by the numerous sexual abuse allegations against President Trump. Rochon couldn’t explain exactly why she likes Trump so much — she said there is just something about him.

“I just like the fact that he has balls,” she said.