Just days away from a special senate election in Alabama, there’s a question racing around the local political press: Where is Roy Moore?
Although Moore has a rally planned in Dale County on Monday night, the day before the election, the Republican candidate hasn’t been publicly seen since December 5, relying instead on surrogates.
‘I think it’s extremely odd that for the better part of that campaign, we have seen his spokespeople, his campaign manager and his surrogates,’ Angi Horn Stalnaker, a Republican consultant who has run races against Moore in the past, told the Montgomery Advertiser.
Moore himself has been notably reticent on the campaign trail, making fewer than 10 public appearances in the past month.
But the candidate’s high-profile boosters include President Donald Trump, who held a campaign-style rally supporting the candidate just over the border in Florida this week.
Trump also recorded a robocall message for Moore saying ‘he is the guy we need’, it emerged on Saturday.
Alabama Republican senate candidate Roy Moore hasn’t been seen since a December 5 rally (pictured) prompting some to ask why the candidate has been so elusive during the campaign
Moore’s Democrat opponent Doug Jones (left) has been racing around the state in the campaign’s final days, appearing with New Jersey Senator Cory Booker (right)
President Donald Trump this week held a campaign-style rally (pictured) supporting Moore in Pensacola, Florida, just miles from Alabama’s key Wiregrass region that Moore must win
At a press conference on Thursday, a local reporter posed the question: Where is Moore?
‘He’s campaigning,’ said Ben DuPre, a spokesman for the Moore campaign. ‘He’s campaigning hard.’
Meanwhile, Moore’s Democrat opponent Doug Jones has been racing around the state in the campaign’s final days, appearing with New Jersey Senator Cory Booker in an aggressive push to turn out black voters for Tuesday’s election.
Jones will need black voters to turn out for him at rates near what former President Barack Obama saw in the state, a tall order in an off-year special election in December.
Moore’s campaign has been dogged by allegations, including that he sexually touched a 14-year-old in the 1970s, when he was in his 30s – allegations that he has steadfastly denied.
The Republican remains ahead in the polls though, with the latest Real Clear Politics average showing him up by 3.8 points.
And for the most part, Republican leaders in the state say they stand by Moore and plan to vote for him.
Steve Bannon (left) appeared at the December 5 rally supporting Moore (right) and will join the candidate again for a planned rally in Dale County on Monday night
Moore is seen with his wife Kayla at the December 5 rally. The Republican candidate has held fewer than 10 events in the past month, instead relying on surrogates to campaign
‘I have stated both publicly and privately over the last month that unless these allegations were proven to be true I would continue to plan to vote for the Republican nominee, Judge Roy Moore,’ Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill said in a statement to the Associated Press.
‘I have already cast my absentee ballot and I voted for Judge Moore,’ Merrill said.
Most state Republican officials who responded to AP inquiries said they would vote for Moore.
Republican US Senator Richard Shelby, whom Moore would join to represent Alabama in the Senate if elected, is one notable exception.
Shelby said he did not vote for Moore, and wrote in another Republican on his absentee ballot.
Moore plans to make one final campaign appearance on Monday night in Dale County, in the heart of the key Wiregrass region in southeast Alabama that must turn out strong for a Moore victory.
He will be joined at the rally by former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and Congressman Louie Gohmert, a Republican from Texas.