A new poll in the Alabama Senate GOP primary runoff shows a dead heat between Republicans Roy Moore and Luther Strange. Harper Polling reports:
The survey is the best news Strange has received since advancing to the runoff two weeks ago. In two other polls taken in August, Moore hit 50 percent, with Strange nearly 20 points behind. Harper Polling is a GOP firm, but its director tells TWS that the firm is not doing any work on behalf of any of the groups involved in the Alabama GOP Senate primary.
Strange, the former Alabama attorney general,was appointed to the Senate to fill Jeff Sessions’s seat earlier this year. He has the formal endorsements of both Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and President Trump, but Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon is backing Moore. After Moore and Strange finished the first round of voting as the top two vote getters on Aug. 15 (39 percent for Moore and 32 percent for Strange), Trump offered this surprisingly neutral tweet: “Congratulation [sid] to Roy Moore and Luther Strange for being the final two and heading into a September runoff in Alabama. Exciting race!”
Controversy has surrounded both GOP candidates. Strange was appointed to the Senate by former governor Robert Bentley, who resigned in disgrace not long after in the wake of scandals that Strange’s office was investigating. Former judge Roy Moore, meanwhile, has a reputation for making controversial remarks and flouting federal court orders. Moore won back a seat on the state Supreme Court in deep-red Alabama in 2012 with only 51.8 percent of the vote, running about 9 points behind Mitt Romney. The Senate Leadership Fund has been attacking Moore and his wife for taking $1 million in salary over a nine-year period at a legal nonprofit, the Foundation for Moral Law.
The GOP runoff will be held Sept. 26, and the special general election will be held Dec.12.
