It's not just scandal: Moore lost in Alabama because the GOP agenda is toxically unpopular

Democrat Doug Jones won a remarkable upset victory over controversial rival Roy Moore in the diehard Republican state of Alabama on Tuesday to win election to the US Senate. His victory by a margin of 49.5 to 48.9 with 91% of precincts reporting set off a political earthquake dealing a major blow to Donald Trump and his efforts to pass tax reform on Capitol Hill. Jones was able to become the first Democrat in a decade to win any statewide office in Alabama by beating Moore who had faced multiple allegations of sexual assault during a campaign which exposed Republican party faultlines. Moore who late on Tuesday was refusing to concede the race had been favored in the deep red state until two women came forward to claim that Moore assaulted them when they were teenagers and a number of others said that the Alabama Republican had romantically pursued them when they were underage. Moore has denied all the allegations. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Many Republicans rushed to distance themselves from Roy Moore in the aftermath of allegations. Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images Alabama has long faced a profound racial divide which was reflected in the results. According to an exit poll Jones won 95% of the African-American vote but only 27% of the white vote in the Yellowhammer State. However heavy African-American turnout on Jones s behalf overcame Moore s margins in rural predominantly white parts of Alabama. Jones also made significant inroads among college educated whites. He won well-educated Madison County by a margin of 57-40. A center of the aerospace industry Trump won the county by a margin of 55-38 in 2016. More in common than what would divide us Jones emerged to a euphoric reception just before 10pm local time. Folks I gotta tell you I think that I have been waiting all my life and now I just don t know what the hell to say he said beginning a 10-minute speech. I have always believed that the people of Alabama had more in common than what would divide us. The election had never been either about him or Moore he insisted. This entire race has been about dignity and respect. This campaign has been about the rule of law. This campaign has been about common courtesy and decency and making sure everyone in this state regardless of what zip code you live in is going to get a fair shake. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Doug Jones waves to supporters after the results were announced. Photograph: John Bazemore/AP His speech was met with cheers and applause and chants of USA! USA! The Democratic victory will reduce the Republican majority in the Senate to 51-49 once Jones takes his seat on Capitol Hill. This significantly reduces the margin for error as Republicans attempt to push through a major corporate tax cut. They already have one defector in senator Bob Corker and Jones s election means a single additional Republican breaking ranks would sink the legislation. Moore s defeat also marks a major political blow to Trump who endorsed the Alabama Republican and held a rally on his behalf just over the state line in Pensacola Florida. Although most national Republicans rushed to distance themselves from Moore in the aftermath of the allegations Trump reaffirmed his support through tweets and public statements. Shortly after the results were called Tuesday Trump tweeted his congratulations to Jones: Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) Congratulations to Doug Jones on a hard fought victory. The write-in votes played a very big factor but a win is a win. The people of Alabama are great and the Republicans will have another shot at this seat in a very short period of time. It never ends! December 13 2017 Moore s defeat is a significant blow to the efforts by Steve Bannon and the populist Trump wing of the Republican party to undermine Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell. Bannon and his allies have been planning a series of primary challenges against establishment Republicans in 2018. Moore s defeat significantly reduces their leverage as the joint efforts of Bannon and his website Breitbart could not elect their preferred candidate in a state that Donald Trump won in a landslide in 2016. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Roy Moore supporters react to the loss on election night. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images Steven Law the head of the McConnell allied Senate Leadership Fund came out with a statement putting the blame squarely on Bannon moments after the race was called. This is a brutal reminder that candidate quality matters regardless of where you are running Law said. Not only did Steve Bannon cost us a critical Senate seat in one of the most Republican states in the country but he also dragged the president of the United States into his fiasco. More Mr Bean than John Wayne: thumbs down for Roy Moore s horsemanship Read more Cory Gardner the head of the National Republican Senate Committee which flatly refused to backed Moore said: Tonight s results are clear the people of Alabama deemed Roy Moore unfit to serve in the US Senate. While national Republicans accepted defeat the Moore campaign still held out hope. At Moore s election night event the candidate and his supporters still held out hope. Campaign chairman Bill Armistead took the stage to insist that the evening is not over yet and to cite Alabama s provision for an automatic recount of the result is within one half of a percentage point. He also noted optimistically that there were still outstanding military ballots. Moore then took the stage to say: When the vote is this close it s not over. He then bemoaned that he had been painted in an unfavorable and unfaithful light before urging attendees to go home and go to sleep. Cal Zastrow a friend of Moore who had come down from Michigan to volunteer for the campaign tried to frame the results within a bigger picture. I was cheering for him and supporting him but Jesus is wonderful whether Roy Moore wins or loses he said. I m not distressed. I m not discouraged. Jesus is wonderful. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Supporters celebrate as Doug Jones is declared the winner during his election night gathering. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images At Jones election night party hundreds of supporters many waving signs erupted in cheers at a hotel ballroom in Birmingham when on giant TV screens CNN declared the race for the Democrat. There were hugs smiles tears and chants of We want Doug! The raw emotion was evident. John Parker 26 a bartender said: I think it s astounding and unprecedented in Alabama politics and response to what we re seeing nationally. This is a direct response President Trump. Roy Moore is unfit for any job let alone a public servant. Alabama tonight voted for America. He added: There is hope and joy. Tomorrow s another day in Alabama. Caitlin Barringer 29 who works in healthcare said: We finally have a person who will represent all of Alabama. I can t believe it s taken this long for people to realise that Roy Moore is not what he says he is. Looking at the media crews in the ballroom she added: I m thankful everyone from all over the world is here and Alabama has shown we are so much more than closed minded people. Community activist Keith Williams 43 who is African American said: Miracles do happen. I have a message for America: don t count Alabama out. The progressive movement is going forward. Photo Doug Jones Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Alabama takes a selfie with a supporter during a campaign event in Birmingham. Credit Justin Sullivan/Getty Images This article is part of the Opinion Today newsletter. You can sign up here to receive the newsletter each weekday.On Election Day last year I devoted my column to this country s real voter fraud not the vanishingly small number of people who try to vote illegally but the large number of American citizens who are kept from exercising their most basic democratic right.The problem is serious in Alabama the site of today s special Senate election between the Republican Roy Moore and the Democrat Doug Jones. Thousands of Alabama residents are prohibited from voting or face unfair obstacles and a disproportionate number of them are black.Few elections are close enough for voting obstacles to be decisive but the Alabama Senate race may be one of them. (Polls continue to differ widely largely because it s so unusual featuring one candidate Moore who s a proud bigot an alleged molester and the nominee of the state s dominant political party.) Advertisement Continue reading the main story Before the results of the Alabama race are known I encourage you to think about voting barriers in the state. Regardless of the outcome the obstacles to democracy in Alabama are an injustice. Continue reading the main story Controversy swirled over the mechanics of the Alabama Senate election after the state supreme court intervened at the eleventh hour to give election officials a green light not to preserve electronic ballot records that could form the basis of a recount. A court in Montgomery the state capital issued an injunction on Monday afternoon ordering election officials around the state to preserve digital images of the ballots cast by Alabama voters in the hard-fought contest between controversial Republican Roy Moore and Democrat Doug Jones. Roy Moore arrives on horseback to vote as sister says every single woman is lying Read more But the supreme court stayed that injunction almost immediately following a protest lodged by Alabama s chief election official the secretary of state John Merrill. Voting rights experts denounced the ruling as a blow to transparency in a state that already has a flawed vote recount procedure and a somewhat checkered history of questionable election outcomes that the state s senior officials and courts have allowed to go unchallenged. There s no legitimate reason not to preserve ballot images said Christopher Sautter a veteran Washington election lawyer who helped the plaintiffs in the case. It s neither expensive nor inconvenient. It amounts to flipping a switch. Priscilla Duncan the lead plaintiff in the case noted with some amazement that the secretary of state s protest was lodged with the supreme court at 4.38pm and the justices came back with their ruling at 5.18pm. It s just unbelievable that they examined the pleadings and got eight judges to concur in half an hour on a Monday afternoon she said. Quick guide Gay bans and praise for Putin: the world according to Roy Moore Show Hide Homosexuality should be illegal In 2005 Moore said: Homosexual conduct should be illegal. In an interview televised on C-Span Moore added: It is immoral. It is defined by the law as detestable. During a debate in September 2017 he went out of his way to bemoan the fact that sodomy and sexual perversion sweep the land . September 11 attacks as divine punishment In a speech in February Moore appeared to suggest that the terrorist attacks of September 11 were the result of divine retribution against the United States and prophesized in the Book of Isaiah. In comments first reported by CNN Moore quoted Isaiah 30:12-13 saying: Because you have despised His word and trust in perverseness and oppression and say thereon ... therefore this iniquity will be to you as a breach ready to fall swell out in a high wall whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instance. Moore then noted: Sounds a little bit like the Pentagon whose breaking came suddenly at an instance doesn t it? He added: If you think that s coincidence if you go to verse 25: There should be up on every high mountain and upon every hill rivers and streams of water in the day of the great slaughter when the towers will fall. Praise for Putin In an interview with the Guardian in August Moore praised Putin for his views on gay rights. Maybe Putin is right. Maybe he s more akin to me than I know. The comments came after Moore suggested the United States could be described as the focus of evil in the world because we promote a lot of bad things . Moore specifically named gay marriage as one of those bad things . Reds and yellows At a rally earlier in September Moore talked about reds and yellows fighting while discussing racial division in the United States. Moore justified this on Twitter by citing lyrics from the song Jesus Loves the Little Children. He wrote Red yellow black and white they are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world. This is the Gospel. Tracking livestock is communism In 2006 Moore condemned a proposal for a national ID system for animals as more identifiable with communism than free enterprise . The proposal received attention after a cow in Alabama had been diagnosed with mad cow disease. Moore who was then running for governor was skeptical that the outbreak was real. Instead Moore suggested it was a ruse intended to promote the tracking system. Was this helpful? Thank you for your feedback. We have reason to believe those machines can be compromised. Whether intentionally or through error there can be some false results and there have been some tests around the country where there have been some rather sizeable discrepancies. Theoretically election officials could go back to the paper ballots as cast by the voters and recount them by hand a method that many voting rights advocates believe to be the most reliable. But Alabama law does not provide for such manual recounts only a machine recount of the digital images that are taken at the time each ballot is cast. If those images are then destroyed there is no easy way to verify that they were read and counted correctly. I don t understand why the state does not want to preserve them. That doesn t make sense said Marian Schneider of the national advocacy group Verified Voting. Jurisdictions should have processes in place for ordinary citizens to review election documents and verify that results came out the way they should have. Tuesday s Senate race is by far the most important election in Alabama since the US supreme court s 2013 Shelby Count v Holder ruling which stripped the justice department of the ability to veto discriminatory voting laws in states like Alabama with a long history of racial inequality. Roy Moore battles bigotry claims on eve of Alabama vote: Our attorney is a Jew Read more The American Civil Liberties Union and other rights groups are already deeply concerned about Alabama s strict voter ID law and the fact that 31 department of motor vehicles offices all of them in black-majority counties were closed shortly after the voter ID law s passage. Some have since reopened but with curtailed opening hours. They were also alarmed when Merrill threatened to jail hundreds of voters who crossed party lines to vote in October s primary runoff race that saw Roy Moore emerge as the Republican candidate. A new law banning crossover voting passed only a few months earlier and had not been widely publicized. All these issues could become factors if the Senate election is too close to call. The Senate has the right under the constitution to override Alabama law and conduct an investigation as it sees fit but it won t be able to check the electronic ballot imagines if they have been destroyed. I don t want to speculate what this might open the door to said Sautter the veteran election lawyer but it could lead to results that can t be verified. That would definitely be extremely unfortunate given how important this election is. The US state of Alabama - which is holding a much-watched special election - has some of the worst conditions of poverty in the developed world according to a visiting United Nations official. Philip Alston whose job takes him around the planet to look at conditions of extreme poverty said some of the things he saw in parts of Alabama so-called Black Belt particularly in regard to sewage disposal were unprecedented in the West. I think it s very uncommon in the first world. This is not a sight that one normally sees said Philip Alston the UN s Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights. I d have to say that I haven t seen this. Lowndes County in rural #Alabama I saw homes that are not connected to public sewage systems whose owners can t afford to install septic tanks. Many resort to digging ditches & straight piping waste water to within meters of homes posing serious health risks. #USApoverty pic.twitter.com/1A1fmB5hDz Philip Alston (@Alston_UNSR) December 8 2017 Mr Alston made his comments to AL.com while touring parts of Butler County and Lowndes County where he met a man who had unreliable electricity and a septic tank that no longer worked. People in the region frequently suffer from E. Coli and hookworm a disease associated with extreme poverty and which was thought to have been eradicated in the US more than 100 years ago but which was recently found to persist in pockets of Lowndes County located just 20 miles from the state capital Montgomery where many residents are too poor to afford a septic system and make their own sewer lines using PVC piping. The lines run from the people s homes some 30ft above the ground before emptying into ditches or waste ground. This seems safe to the residents Rojelio Mejia a pediatrician and infectious disease specialist at the Baylor College of Medicine who led the study that discovered the continued existence of hookworm in Alabama told NPR. Roy Moore s wife claims he can t be antisemitic because one of our attorneys is a Jew But Alabama is very hilly and any drizzle of rain causes flooding so whatever they delivered to the site spreads to the entire area including their neighbours area. Across the world hookworm infects a total of 740m people The Black Belt of Alabama was originally named for its rich top soil but took on another meaning after the establishment of slave plantations. It has long suffered from poverty and racial discrimination. World news in pictures 37 show all World news in pictures 1/37 12 December 2017 Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men gather during the funeral ceremony of prominent spiritual leader Rabbi Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman who died on Tuesday at the age of 104 in Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv Israel. REUTERS 2/37 11 December 2017 A Palestinian protester kicks a flaming tire during clashes with Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Ramallah AFP/Getty 3/37 10 December 2017 Demonstrators set US and Israeli flags on fire during a protest against Donald Trump s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel s capital in Istanbul REUTERS 4/37 9 December 2017 People gather to watch the bikers procession during the funeral ceremony in tribute to late French singer Johnny Hallyday in Paris EPA 5/37 8 December 2017 A Palestinian protester uses a sling to hurl stones towards Israeli troops REUTERS 6/37 7 December 2017 Firefighters monitor a section of the Thomas Fire along the 101 freeway north of Ventura California. Getty Images 7/37 6 December 2017 Palestinians burn an Israeli and a U.S. flag during a protest against the U.S. intention to move its embassy to Jerusalem and to recognize the city of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in Gaza City Reuters 8/37 5 December 2017 Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili flashes a victory sign after he was freed by his supporters in Kiev REUTERS 9/37 4 December 2017 A man exercises in a park on a winter morning in Kolkata India REUTERS 10/37 3 December 2017 A supporter of Salvador Nasralla presidential candidate for the Opposition Alliance Against the Dictatorship puts a balloon on the shield of a soldier in a protest while the country is still mired in chaos over a contested presidential election in Tegucigalpa Honduras REUTERS 11/37 2 December 2017 A man dressed as Santa Claus skiis down a mountain during the Saint Nicholas Day at the Alpine ski resort of Verbier Switzerland REUTERS 12/37 1 December 2017 A nurse takes blood for a HIV test for French President Emmanuel Macron as he visits the Delafontaine Hospital on World Aids Day Reuters 13/37 30 November 2017 An activist pours gasoline as an effigy of President Rodrigo Duterte and U.S. President Donald Trump burns during a protest action against Duterte s plan to set up a Revolutionary Government along a street in metro Manila Philippines Reuters 14/37 29 November 2017 South Korea s Hyunmoo II missile is fired during an exercise at an undefined location in the east coast of South Korea The Defence Ministry/Yonhap via REUTERS 15/37 28 November 2017 People fall as police fire tear gas to try control the crowd trying to force their way into Kasarani Stadium to attend the inauguration of President Uhuru Kenyatta in Nairobi REUTERS 16/37 27 November 2017 Rohingya refugee Amina Khatun 55 rests at the bank of the Naf river after crossing it on an improvised raft to reach Bangladesh in Teknaf. Two of her sons were killed by gun fire when her village was attacked by Myanmar military she says Reuters 17/37 26 November 2017 Mount Agung volcano is seen spewing smoke and ash in Bali EMILIO KUZMA-FLOYD/via REUTERS 18/37 25 November 2017 A Pakistani protester throws a tear gas shell back towards police during a clash in Islamabad AFP/Getty Images 19/37 24 November 2017 Zimbabwe s former vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa arrives ahead of his inauguration ceremony to be sworn in as president in Harare Reuters 20/37 23 November 2017 Comrades of missing crew members express their grief after the Argentine Navy announced that the sound detected in the missing submarine search is consistent with an explosion AFP 21/37 22 November 2017 Former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic shouts at the presiding judge during the verdict hearing in his genocide trial in The Hague Netherlands EPA 22/37 21 November 2017 People and soldiers celebrate after the resignation of Zimbabwe s president Robert Mugabe AFP/Getty 23/37 20 November 2017 Israeli security forces carry away an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish demonstrator as they disperse a protest against Israeli army conscription in Bnei Brak a city near Tel Aviv AFP/Getty 24/37 19 November 2017 Participants crossing the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge as they compete in the 2017 Qingdao International Marathon on the Sea in Qingdao in China s eastern Shandong province AFP/Getty 25/37 18 November 2017 Women shout pro-freedom slogans as people carry the remains of Mugees Mir a suspected militant who according to local media was killed in an encounter with the Indian security forces in Zakura during his funeral in Srinagar Reuters/Danish Ismail 26/37 17 November 2017 Riot police use stones to disperse the convoy of Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga as they attempt to access the Uhuru Park grounds upon his return REUTERS 27/37 16 November 2017 Donald Trump has awkward water bottle moment at the White House while talking about his latest overseas trip in Asia EPA 28/37 15 November 2017 Military vehicles and soldiers patrol the streets in Harare Zimbabwe Reuters/Philimon Bulawayo 29/37 14 November 2017 An Iranian boy rides a bicycle through the rubble from damaged buildings in the town of Sarpol-e Zahab. A 7.3-magnitude earthquake left hundreds killed and thousands homeless two days before. AFP/Getty Images 30/37 13 November 2017 Gianluigi Buffon reacts during Italy s World Cup qualification match against Sweden. He retired from international duty after the Azzurri failed to go through. AFP/Getty 31/37 12 November 2017 Pepole hold placards demanding the return of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri from Saudi Arabia during the annual Beirut International Marathon EPA 32/37 11 November 2017 Polish nationalists light flares as they take part in the March of Independence 2017 in Warsaw EPA 33/37 10 November 2017 Protesters rally near the U.S. Embassy in Manila to protest this weekend s visit of President Donald Trump AP 34/37 9 November 2017 Shiite faithful pilgrims gather between the holy shrine of Imam Hussein and the holy shrine of Imam Abbas for Arbaeen AP 35/37 8 November 2017 A woman wearing a scarf to cover her face looks on as she waits for a passenger bus on a smoggy morning in New Delhi India. Air pollution reached unprecedented levels in the city prompting the government s Central Pollution Control Board to recommend emergency free public transport Reuters 36/37 7 November 2017 Russian solider stands in line at a military parade that marks the anniversary of the 1941 parade when Soviet soldiers marched towards the front lines of World War Two at Red Square in Moscow Russia Reuters 37/37 6 November 2017 A Houthi follower emerges from a gap in a flag as he attends a rally to show support to the Palestinians in Sanaa Yemen Reuters Mr Alston whose is carrying out a 15-day tour of the US to produce a report on poverty and human rights was also taken to a property in Lowndes County where five people including two youngsters and a teenager with Down Syndrome live in a home where the sewage is discharged into open pools that flood when it rains. In Butler County Mr Alston reportedly told one resident: The hope is that we ll bring attention to these problems just like we bring attention to people who are being tortured. Read more Trump tells Alabama to vote for Moore because Jones is pro-abortion Roy Moore s wife insists he is not antisemitic because he has a Jewish Charles Barkley tells Alabama stop looking like idiots to the nation The special election being held to fill the senate seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions when he joined Donald Trump s cabinet has featured debate about poverty jobs and economic growth in the state. However the contest between Democrat Doug Jones and Republican Roy Moore has been largely dominated by allegations of sexual abuse and assault levelled at Mr Moore by a series of women. He has adamantly denied the claims. More about: Alabama Alabama Senate Race Doug Jones Roy Moore Philip Alston poverty Reuse content Breaking News A mother-of-three added six more to the family when she gave birth to sextuplets yesterday.In just four minutes Courtney and Eric Waldrop 35 became parents of nine when they welcomed three boys and three girls to the world to join their three older sons. The middle-school sweethearts said they always wanted a big family but to their surprise doctors discovered six fetuses in Courtney s womb.With that shock came the fear of the complications that could arise while pregnant with multiple babies.SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO The Waldrop family from Alabama welcomed six babies yesterday when mother Courtney delivered sextuplets adding to their family of five Courtney Waldrop 35 was surprised to learn she was expecting sextuplets after taking low dosage fertility drugs earlier this year Courtney is pictured with her twin boys Wale and Bridge five and oldest son Saylor eight last week at 29 weeks pregnantAll six babies came out crying and Courtney and the sextuplets are doing well according to social media posts by friends and family.This is a relief for the couple from Alabama who had a long history of heartbreaking miscarriages after having their first son Saylor in 2008.They then used fertility treatments to conceive their twin boys Wale and Bridge now five.After a miscarriage of their fourth child in January their doctor put them on a low dosage of fertility treatment that was meant to minimize the chances of Courtney carrying multiple fetuses even though their twins were born this way. It was devastating because I can get pregnant so easily I just can t hold on to them Courtney told PEOPLE. It was upsetting but we had experienced it before and I knew I had a medical issue that contributed to it. RELATED ARTICLES Previous 1 Next My sore throat turned out to be stage 4 cancer :... The girl who faces the same lifetime of cruel judgement as... Share this article Share During an ultrasound in June the technicians heard six heartbeats in the first-grade teacher s womb.This was both cause for celebration and concern due to the extremely high risk of the sextuplets being born preterm. Mothers carrying multiple fetuses have an increased chance of having a c-section and are at a higher risk of stroke high blood pressure gestational diabetes and urinary tract infections. Doctors explained the option of selective reduction a procedure that reduces the number of fetuses and increase the chances of survival for the others.But the parents refused and said they would let faith guide them. Courtney said the couple was scared due to her small frame but excited to see their family grow. An ultrasound from August shows three of the fetuses in the womb The couple from Alabama had the goal to make it to 30 weeks because delivering the sextuplets any sooner could cause serious health complicationsAccording to a 2013 study the number of multiple births of triplets or more due to fertility drugs and injectable hormones rose from 36 percent to 45 percent from 1998 to 2011. WALDROP BABY NAMES BoysLayke Bryars Blu Wellington Tag Bricker Girls Rivers McCallRayne McCoy Rawlings McClaine Older childrenSaylor Briggs Bridge Ryder Wales Tucker At the same time the births of multiples because of in-vitro fertilization (IVF) dropped from 48 percent to 32 percent.At 11 weeks Courtney took to Facebook and said her calorie intake was the biggest concern because she would have to consume a high amount to keep herself and the babies healthy. Please pray that my appetite will allow me to eat like I ve never eaten before she wrote. It seemed impossible to carry six babies full-term so the couple s goal was to make it to at least 30 weeks.At 25 weeks Courtney was put on bed rest for seven days to slow down the progression of the babies. But last week she announced she had carried the sextuplets to 29 weeks meaning they reached their 30 week goal. Though this is still premature the babies have a better chance at survival and decreased risk of complications such as cerebral palsy difficulty breathing and development delays. The sextuplets were delivered yesterday in Alabama between 1.48pm and 1.52pm. According to family the Waldrop sextuplets are doing well. The boys were named Layke Bryars Blu Wellington and Tag Bricker while the girls were named Rivers McCall Rayne McCoy and Rawlings McClaine. Breaking News Breaking News