Roy Moore says he is "seriously considering" Senate run
Alabama Republican Roy Moore, whose all-but-assured 2017 Senate victory in the deep red state was upended by allegations of sexual misconduct, said Friday that he is "seriously considering" another Senate run, AI.com reports. Democrat Doug Jones' Senate seat is up for grabs for 2020.
"I'm seriously considering it," Moore said on Focal Point radio show with Bryan Fischer on American Family Radio. "I think the (2017 race) was stolen. I think that's been pronounced in the national newspapers – The New York Times, The Washington Post even has recognized there was a disinformation campaign going on in September of 2017 by forces outside of Alabama that spent a lot of money not regulated by the FEC in trying to dissuade Republicans from voting and encourage and enrage Democrats."
A strange series of events led to Moore's loss for the Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions when he left to become President Trump's first attorney general. Moore is a towering and divisive figure in Alabama politics: Once the chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, Moore has been removed from the bench twice -- once for defying a federal judge's order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state judicial building. Then, after he was elected again, a judicial discipline panel permanently suspended Moore in 2016, ruling that he urged probate judges to deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples in defiance of the federal courts.
Moore faced off against Luther Strange, who was controversially appointed by a Republican governor who he was investigating, in the September primary, and Mr. Trump threw his support behind Strange. Despite video surfacing of Moore saying at a speech shortly before the primary that "we have blacks and whites fighting, reds and yellows fighting, Democrats and Republicans fighting, men and women fighting," Moore defeated Luther Strange.
But then a few weeks before the December special election, The Washington Post first reported -- and CBS News later confirmed -- four women accused Moore of pursuing them when they were teens and he was in his 30s.
The Republican party at first backed away from Moore but he remained defiant and denied the allegations. Eventually the RNC conceded and threw their support behind him. Mr. Trump even recorded a robocall and tweeted on the day of the election "Vote Roy Moore!"
Even before the sexual misconduct allegations, the race had attracted national attention -- and outside money, especially from national Democrats. Although Democrats suffered a number of losses in special elections in 2017, the national party was energized after winning the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial elections. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and civil rights icon U.S. Rep. John Lewis campaigned for Jones, and former President Obama even recorded a robocall.
Buoyed by surprisingly strong turnouts among Democrats and African Americans, as well solid support from younger voters, moderates, and women, Jones eked out a close victory over Moore. Jones became the first Democrat elected to the seat in over a quarter century.
But one year after the election, The New York Times reported a group of Democratic tech experts decided to experiment during the election with using the tactics that Russians used to meddle in the 2016 presidential election. Jones has called for a federal investigation into the Times' findings.
The seat is up for re-election again in 2020, and GOP Rep. Bradley Byrne has already announced he will be seeking the nomination in what is expected to be a crowded field of Republicans.
The Republican primary is set for March 3, 2020.
