Alabama Senate race: Doug Jones leads Roy Moore by 8 points in new Fox News poll
Democrat Doug Jones leads embattled Republican Roy Moore by eight points in Alabama's special U.S. Senate race, according to a poll Fox News released Thursday.
The poll has Jones leading Moore 50 percent to 42 percent comes after multiple women have accused Moore of inappropriately pursuing them while they were teens and he was in his 30s. Some of the women allege he sexually touched them against their wishes. According to the poll, which was conducted after the allegations began to emerge, 13 percent of Republicans plan to vote for Jones.
For Jones, the key voting demographic is women. While 53 percent of men polled say they plan to vote for Moore and 41 percent for Jones, 58 percent of women say they plan to vote for Jones and just 32 percent for Moore.
For voters, Jones possesses a key strongpoint that Moore does not — moral character. Of those polled, 56 percent say Jones has strong moral character, while just 41 percent said Moore does.
Voters are split on whether they think the allegations leveled against More are true. Of those polled, 38 percent believe the accusers' claims, while 37 percent do not, and 25 percent are undecided. Still, voters think Moore should stay in the race, by 54-38 percent. The poll surveyed 823 registered Alabama voters on landlines and cell phones.
A previous Fox poll last month, before the allegations emerged, had Doug and Moore tied at 42 percent.
Moore is under increasing pressure from the Republican Party to step out of the race. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — who the campaign faults as somehow connected to the accusations — along with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and other leading Republicans have called for him to step aside. But while President Trump has yet to weigh in on the accusations himself, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the voters of Alabama should decide "who their next senator should be."
But time and options are running out for the GOP ahead of the Dec. 12 election. Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), chairman of the National Senatorial Republican Committee, says the Senate should expel Moore if he is elected and seated in the Senate.
Moore has vehemently denied that he acted inappropriately. In an interview with Sean Hannity last week, he said he would "not generally" have dated teen girls when he was in his 30s.