Washington stands by to see which brand of Trumpism will carry the day in a Alabama’s special election primary between Luther Strange and Roy Moore, a race that has become something of a proxy war for the Republican Party. Polls close at 7 p.m. ET Tuesday and THE WEEKLY STANDARD will be tracking the vote count below, with data provided by DecisionDeskHQ:
The race pits the incumbent Strange, a relatively conventional Republican who was appointed to fill Jeff Sessions’s vacated seat in February, against Moore, a religious firebrand who achieved notoriety through his uncompromising social stances as an Alabama judge. President Trump has backed Strange, and congressional Republicans have funneled millions of dollars of support his way. Meanwhile, conservative celebrities from Ann Coulter to Sarah Palin to Steve Bannon have thrown their weight behind Moore.
President Trump appeared at a Strange rally on Friday night, praising the incumbent in a meandering speech where he also acknowledged he “might have made a mistake” in his endorsement. The president also tweeted his support on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Moore’s supporters have been hard at work insisting their candidate is actually the race’s true Trumpian.
“We did not come here to defy Donald Trump. We came here to praise and honor him,” Bannon said at a Moore rally on Monday night.
Going into the day of the runoff, Moore was enjoying a comfortable lead of 11 points in the polls.
