Alabama Senate race is too close to call

Alabama voters headed to the polls Tuesday to send either Republican Roy Moore, an accused pedophile, or Democrat Doug Jones to the U.S. Senate. 

When polls closed at 7 p.m. local time, the race was too close to call.  

Early exit polls suggested that Moore might see trouble. 

At a polling location in Ozark, Alabama, 74-year-old Moore supporter Sue Sleeper predicted her guy was on track for a win. 

Republican Roy Moore should have easily slid into a Senate seat in Alabama, but accusations that he habitually preyed on teenagers  have eroded his support 

Mike Tate (left) holds his son Seth as he and his family await the arrival of Roy Moore at the Republican's election night party in Montgomery, Alabama 

Mike Tate (left) holds his son Seth as he and his family await the arrival of Roy Moore at the Republican’s election night party in Montgomery, Alabama 

Democrat Doug Jones spoke to reporters outside his Mountain Brook, Alabama polling place after he placed a vote for himself on Tuesday 

Democrat Doug Jones spoke to reporters outside his Mountain Brook, Alabama polling place after he placed a vote for himself on Tuesday 

‘He’s not going to pull an upset,’ she told DailyMail.com of Jones. ‘He’s going to win,’ she said of Moore.

Pointing again to the Democratic hopeful, she pointed to the slew of television advertisements he had run. 

‘The other one, he was constantly irritating me on my TV,’ she said. ‘And on top of it, he’s real hard to look at.’ 

However, Ozark resident Jerome Dudley, 69, was pulling for Jones. 

A political independent, Dudley told DailyMail.com he decided to go with Jones after Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, a Republican, said he wasn’t voting for Moore and would write in a ‘distinguished Republican’ instead.

Dudley also pointed out that Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who held the seat the Jones and Moore are vying for, wouldn’t say who he had voted for. 

The allegations that Moore had groped a 14-year-old girl had also disturbed the voter. 

‘That’s a baby!’ Dudley said. 

Moore offered his final words on the topic Monday calling the Washington Post story a ‘terrible, disgusting article.’ 

‘These women,’ Moore said, ‘had not come forward for 34 years, but they waited 30 days before this general election to come forward’. 

Beyond having to respond to the sexual assault and harassment allegations, the final stretch was a chaotic and colorful one for Moore.   

On election eve, the embattled Senate candidate appeared at a rally alongside a handful of favorites from the right including former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, Rep. Louie Gohmert, a congressman from Texas, and Sheriff David Clarke, a black law enforcement officer from Milwaukee County who is a frequent critic of Black Lives Matter. 

While Bannon chose to slyly pick a fight with Ivanka Trump from onstage of Jordan’s Activity Barn in Midland City – twisting her criticism of Moore into ‘There’s a special place in hell for Republicans who should know better’ – it was the comments made by Moore’s wife and his Vietnam buddy Bill Staehle that garnered the most attention. 

Staehle – attempting to defend Moore against pedophilia allegations – told the audience about the time the two ended up, accidentally, in an underage brothel in Vietnam. 

‘We shouldn’t be here, I’m leaving,’ Moore said, according to Staehle’s account. 

‘That was Roy, honorable, disciplined, morally straight, highly principled,’ Staehle said. 

The Moore’s wife Kayla took the stage and tried to push back against what she considered ‘fake news,’ suggesting it was the media’s fault that people think her husband ‘doesn’t support the black community’ nor do they like Jews.  

‘I tell you all this because I see you all and I want to set the record straight while they’re here,’ she said motioning to the slew of journalists at the back of the room during the election eve event.

‘One of our attorneys is a Jew,’ Kayla Moore said.

‘We have very close friends that are Jewish, and rabbis, and we also fellowship with them,’ she said, after saying she and her husband had fellowship with members of the black community as well.

Moore was cast as anti-Semitic after he suggested that Democratic donor George Soros, who is Jewish, is going to hell.

On election day morning, as Democrat Jones put on a defiant face at his polling location across the state, Moore made more of a splash. 

Moore arrived to the polls atop his horse ‘Sassy,’ as wife Karla trotted in on horseback as well.

The candidate would head two hours south to Alabama’s capital Montgomery, for his election night party just blocks from the state’s capitol. 

The venue is just a block away from where Moore served twice, and was twice removed, from the state Supreme Court.  

Meanwhile Moore’s spokesman Ted Crockett went on CNN Tuesday night with the polls only open for several hours more and told Jake Tapper that the candidate ‘probably’ thought homosexual conduct was a crime. 

‘It’s just a sin, OK? That’s what it is,’ Crockett said, outlining Moore’s right-wing Christian beliefs.  

Jones spent more time on the campaign trail in the run-up to today’s vote. 

He brought in popular black Democratic politicians – New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick – and had basketball legend Charles Barkley speak on his behalf Monday night. 

The campaigns also had dueling presidential robocalls at their disposal with Trump recording one for Moore and President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden doing the same for Jones.  

The president had originally teamed up with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in support of Sen. Luther Strange in the GOP Alabama primary, as the state looked to permanently fill the seat once held by Trump’s Attorney General Jeff Sessions. 

FACT-CHECK: ROY MOORE’S DENIALS 

ROY MOORE, on women who said they had a romantic relationship with him when they were in their teens: “I do not know any of these women, nor have I ever engaged in sexual misconduct with anyone.” ”Let me state once again: I do not know any of these women, did not date any of these women and have not engaged in any sexual misconduct with anyone.” –comments during campaign stops in Henagar and Theodore, Nov. 27 and 29.

THE FACTS: In at least two cases, he knew them before he didn’t know them.

In a Nov. 10 radio interview with Sean Hannity, Moore said he remembered two of the women, Debbie Wesson Gibson and Gloria Deason, who were 17 and 18 at the time.

He said he didn’t remember dating them. Asked by Hannity if he generally dated teenagers as a man in his 30s, Moore replied, “Not generally, no. If I did, you know, I’m not going to dispute anything, but I don’t remember anything like that.”

Altogether, five women have stepped up to say Moore pursued them as teens.

Leigh Corfman said Moore touched her sexually when she was 14; he denied that. The age of consent in Alabama is 16.

Moore’s campaign said he was only denying knowing women who have accused him of sexual assault. But Moore said in a campaign stop he didn’t know any of the women featured in his Democratic opponent’s ads. Democrat Doug Jones has run ads with the photos of all of the women who have come forward about Moore.

One of the women has acknowledged that she wrote part of an entry in her high school yearbook that was initially presented as coming from Moore. But no one has refuted her claim that Moore signed her yearbook with a salutation.

–Associated Press 

But Moore destroyed Strange, the appointed seat-filler, in the late September primary, besting the incumbent by about 10 points.  

The ex-judge had been aided by Bannon in the primary, whose presence relayed to voters – with a wink, wink, nudge, nudge – that Moore was the true Trump-ian pick. 

When the sexual misconduct allegations came out, Bannon’s people forcefully pushed back on reports that suggested the Breitbart head’s support was wavering.

Over at the White House, there was some mixed messaging. 

Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway at one point said ‘no Senate seat is worth more than a child,’ but then changed her tune less than a week later saying that Moore’s vote would be helpful on the president’s tax reform bill. 

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on November 16 that, ‘The president believes that these allegations are very troubling and should be taken seriously.’ 

‘And he thinks that the people of Alabama should make the decision on who their next senator should be,’ she said. 

She used the latter line several more times until Trump, himself, pushed the door open to support Moore as he talked to reporters en route to Mar-a-Lago for his Thanksgiving break.   

‘Look he denies it … he totally denies it,’ Trump said, while also whacking the Democrat. ‘We don’t need a liberal person in there. … We don’t need somebody who’s soft on crime like Jones.’ 

Last Monday, with eight days to go in the race, the president called Moore to offer him his endorsement. 

Then, on Friday, Trump appeared in nearby Pensacola, Florida, and encouraged voters in Alabama, living just over the state line, to support Moore. 

On Tuesday morning, the president did what he always does to encourage voters to come out – he sent out a tweet. 

‘The people of Alabama will do the right thing. Doug Jones is Pro-Abortion, weak on Crime, Military and Illegal Immigration, Bad for Gun Owners and Veterans and against the WALL,’ Trump wrote. ‘Jones is a Pelosi/Schumer Puppet.’ 

‘Roy Moore will always vote with us. VOTE ROY MOORE!’ the president said. 

 



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